Supreme Court Agrees to Hear Petition on Jan 20 Challenging Caste-Based Census in Bihar

The Supreme Court agreed on Wednesday to hear on January 20 a petition challenging the caste-based census being conducted by the Bihar government. 
Akhilesh Kumar, a resident of Nalanda, Bihar, has filed a petition demanding the cancellation of the notification issued by the state government on June 6. The petitioner said that no state has the right to conduct a census under the constitution. Even under the Census Act of 1948, the state government has not been given the right to conduct a census, it added.

This step of the state government is going to promote social disharmony as well as the notification of the caste census, which is against the basic spirit of the constitution, the plea added.

While citing the decision of the Constitution Bench of the Supreme Court in the Abhiram Singh case in 2017, the petitioner said that, in this decision, the Supreme Court had said that seeking votes on caste and communal grounds is wrong, but for political reasons in Bihar, efforts are being made to divide the society on the basis of caste, the plea said.

The Grand Alliance government in Bihar started the caste census in Bihar on January 7.