The Bihar government’s caste-based survey once again faced a legal hurdle as the Supreme Court on Friday agreed to hear a fresh petition against the survey in the state. The apex court will hear the petition on April 28.
A bench comprising Chief Justice of India DY Chandrachud and Justice PS Narasimha took note of the submissions of a lawyer seeking urgent hearing of the matter.
The counsel told the bench that the caste survey began on April 15 and is scheduled to end on May 15. The bench said it will hear the matter on April 28.
The apex court had on January 20 declined to entertain petitions challenging the Bihar government’s decision to conduct caste survey in Bihar. It had said that there is no merit in the petitions and dismissed them with liberty to the petitioners to approach the concerned High Court.
Bihar CM praised the caste based survey
Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar on Monday backed the Congress’ demand for an updated caste census in the country, saying it would be beneficial for all sections of the society.
The Chief Minister said that the survey report would help the government in better implementation of welfare schemes for socially and economically disadvantaged groups.
“We have been in favor of caste census since the beginning. When the central government refused to do so, we decided to conduct a caste survey ourselves. This is happening in the state.
This exercise will provide data to the government to work for the benefit of the weaker sections of the society”, Kumar told reporters.
Second phase of caste survey underway
A month-long second phase of caste enumeration is going on in Bihar from April 15 to May 15. The enumeration exercise, which began on January 7, will be completed by May. The Congress is an ally of the ‘Mahagathbandhan’ (grand alliance) government in Bihar.
Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge wrote to Prime Minister Narendra Modi on April 16 seeking an updated caste census, saying meaningful social justice and empowerment programs are incomplete in the absence of such data.
Addressing a rally in Karnataka’s Kolar, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Sunday challenged Prime Minister Modi to release the 2011 caste-based census data in the public domain and also to remove the 50 per cent cap on reservation demanded.
The cap of 50 per cent refers to the Supreme Court judgments, which said that overall reservation in government jobs and education for different communities should not be violated, although there are exceptions for some states exceeding this figure.
“The caste census data was not made available in 2011, after which it was found that it was not done properly. We started demanding to do it right. All parties in Bihar were of the same view when we decided to conduct caste-based survey and it is currently being conducted in the state,” said the chief minister.
The Congress-led UPA government had compiled the Socio Economic and Caste Census (SECC) in 2011. Census reports have been published excluding caste data.
“The caste survey is a good initiative taken by the Grand Alliance_ government. During the census, data related to people’s economic status and their caste will be collected so that the state government can know how many people are poor and what kind of steps should be taken to bring them into the mainstream.
He said that people will be greatly benefited after identifying their economic status, whether they belong to upper caste, backward caste or the weaker section of the society.
The decision to conduct the caste survey was taken by the Bihar cabinet on June 2, 2022. The resolution in support of the caste census was passed unanimously by the bicameral legislature in Bihar twice in 2019 and 2020. The state had also met the Prime Minister in this regard.
(with PTI inputs)