A petition was filed in the Supreme Court on Thursday challenging the Patna High Court order upholding the caste survey ordered by the Nitish Kumar-led Bihar government, ANI reported. On Tuesday, the Patna High Court lifted its stay on the caste survey and called it "perfectly valid" and "initiated with due competence".
"We find the action of the state to be perfectly valid, initiated with due competence, with the legitimate aim of providing development with justice," a division bench comprising Chief Justice K Vinod Chandran and Justice Partha Sarathy said, PTI reported.
The Bihar government had submitted that the people were not being forced to declare their caste and the participation in the entire exercise was purely voluntary.
READ | Supreme Court Refuses To Stay Patna HC Order Halting Caste Census In Bihar
The first round of the caste survey, which was a household counting exercise, was conducted between January 7 and 21. The second round started on April 15 and was supposed to continue till May 15. A budgetary outlay of Rs 500 crore has been laid for the exercise.
In the second phase, information on people's caste and their socio-economic conditions was collected.
However, a single-judge bench of the Patna High Court on May 4 put an interim stay on the survey while observing that it prima facie amounted to a census that the state government had no power to conduct.
After the Patna HC verdict, the Bihar government moved the Supreme Court against the order staying the caste-based survey. The top court, however, refused to lift the stay.
Bihar deputy CM Tejashwi Yadav called the Patna HC decision "historic". "The High Court has put its stamp on the decision of the Mahagathbandhan Govt. Our fight is to bring the backbenchers of society to the mainstream. When a caste-based survey happens, there will be clarity and Govt will form schemes on that basis and take the facilities to them. BJP wanted to stop the caste-based survey," ANI quoted Yadav as saying.