Bihar Caste Survey: SC Refuses to Hold Back the Order of Publishing Further Reports on Caste Survey

Bihar Caste Survey: The Supreme Court on Friday adjourned the hearing of a batch of pleas challenging the constitutionality of the caste-based survey conducted by Bihar.  

A few months before the Lok Sabha elections, the Bihar government released a caste census conducted in the state which revealed that the Extremely backward castes are the largest social group in Bihar comprising 36%, and the other Backward Classes constitute 27.13%.

This data also indicates that the Yadav population shares a majority of 14.27%. The Deputy Chief Minister of Bihar Tejasvi Yadav belongs to this same community. 

The top court was hearing petitions challenging the Patna High Court’s decision to uphold the caste survey undertaken by the Bihar government.

The bench did not pass any restraining order but said it would examine whether the state government had the competence to do the survey. This case will be further looked upon in January 2024.

"Cannot stop any govt from taking a policy decision"

“We cannot stop the state government or any government from taking a policy decision. We are not staying anything at this moment. Let them file counter.” said the bench. 

‘Ek Soch Ek Paryas’, an NGO, has challenged the August 1 verdict of the Patna High Court upholding the June 6, 2022 notification issued by the Bihar Government for the caste survey.

The petitioners argued that it was actually a census which in terms of the constitutional mandate, only the Union Government was empowered to conduct. The nature of the information sought in the survey violated the right to privacy of the respondents.

Speaking of which the court remarked that most people in Bihar are obviously aware of the caste of the people living in the vicinity. So, there’s no question of violating their Right to Privacy.