Bihar moves SC against HC’s interim stay on caste survey

While the next hearing in the Patna HC is scheduled for July 3, the Bihar government filed a special leave petition (SLP) before the apex court.

The Bihar government on Thursday moved the Supreme Court against the Patna high court’s order on May 4 that put an interim stay on the ongoing caste survey in the state with immediate effect.

The Supreme Court. (HT Photo)

On Tuesday, the HC had also rejected the Bihar government’s plea for an early hearing in the case.

While the next hearing in the Patna HC is scheduled for July 3, the Bihar government filed a special leave petition (SLP) before the apex court.

The HC’s interim stay order has come on a petition filed by Youth for Equality after the Supreme Court directed it to look into the matter and dispose of the case in three days.

The state government has stated in the SLP, filed by advocate on record (AOR) Manish Kumar, that the HC ordered an interim stay on the caste-based survey at a time when it was on the verge of completion, which could hamper the entire exercise as 80% of the work has already been completed. It has also challenged the HC observation that the survey was akin to Census, which fell into the domain of the Union government.

“In some of the districts barely 10% work is left to be completed. However, the stay has stopped the entire exercise and restarting it would further burden the state exchequer,” says the government plea.

It has been said that the SLP has been filed under “extreme urgency in view of the interim order passed by the HC, which is completely unsustainable”.

It has also argued that as per the government notification of June 6, 2022, the Assembly is only to be apprised about the progress of the survey and not the data collated, which makes the HC observation “on right to privacy erroneous”.

The high court bench of Chief Justice K Vinod Chandran and Justice Madhuresh Prasad, while staying the caste survey on May 4, had directed the Bihar government “to ensure that the data already collected are secured and not shared with anybody till final orders are passed in the writ petition”.

The first round of the caste survey in Bihar was conducted between January 7 and 21. The second round started on April 15 and was scheduled to continue till May 15.

The Mahagathbandhan government in Bihar– an alliance of Kumar’s Janata Dal (United), the Rashtriya Janata Dal, and the Congress — ordered the survey after the Centre declined the request of an all-party delegation, including the BJP,’from Bihar for a headcount of social groups other than SCs, STs and religious minorities as part of the Census.