New Delhi: The Patna High Court on Thursday stayed the caste-based census in its interim order on Thursday while hearing a petition challenging and seeking an interim stay on the enumeration of castes and economic survey in Bihar.
The Patna High Court on Wednesday completed the hearing and reserved its judgement for a day.
In the hearing on Wednesday, a division bench of Chief Justice KV Chandran heard the petitions filed by Akhilesh Kumar and others.
Advocates Dinu Kumar, Ritu Raj and Abhinav Srivastava on behalf of the petitioners and advocate General PK Shahi on behalf of the State presented the parties before the court.
Dinu Kumar told the court that the State government is conducting caste and economic surveys. He said that this right to conduct surveys is beyond the jurisdiction of the State government.
Government's argument
Advocate General PK Shahi during the hearing on Wednesday said that, the survey is being conducted to make plans for public welfare and to improve the social level. He said that after the proposal was passed by the Bihar Legislative Assembly and Legislative Council, the decision to conduct a caste census was taken. This is a policy decision of the state government, and budget provisions have been made for it. This census will make it easier for the government to formulate policies for the welfare of the poor.
Petitioner's argument
The petitioners in the case have argued that the Bihar government does not have the right to count castes. By doing so, the government is violating the Constitution. The petition states that in the caste-based census, not only people's castes are being recorded but also their occupations and qualifications, which is a violation of their privacy rights. The petition stated that the state government does not have the constitutional authority to conduct a caste census. Moreover, the expenditure of 500 crore rupees on this census is a waste of taxpayers' money.
Caste survey
The caste survey in Bihar commenced in January 2023, with the second phase scheduled to take place from April 15th to May 15th. The initial phase focused on house enumeration, while the second phase involved census officials visiting households to gather data on individuals' castes as well as their economic profiles.