Caste census: The Supreme Court on Thursday declined to issue a stay on the Patna High Court’s order putting an interim stay on the caste-based survey in the state.
The bench noted the Bihar government’s argument that the matter is pending before the high court. A bench of Justices Abhay S Oka and Rajesh Bindal said it would have to examine if the exercise being carried out is a census in garb of survey. “Who is hosting the data? We will be looking at the nature of the exercise, whether it is survey or census,” the Supreme Court ruled.
No interim relief
“We are making it clear, this is not a case where we can grant you interim relief,” the bench said. The apex court noted that the high court had posted the hearing of the main petition on July 3.
The Patna High Court on May 9 had rejected the Bihar government’s petition, seeking an early hearing of its interim stay on the caste-based survey in the state. The high court fixed the hearing for July 3 and clarified that the stay would remain in effect till then.
Subsequently, the Bihar government moved the Supreme Court on May 11, challenging the Patna High Court’s order over the caste-based survey in Bihar. In an appeal filed before the Supreme Court against the May 4 order of the high court, the state government said the stay would adversely affect the entire exercise.
In its special leave petition before the Supreme Court, the Bihar government said, “Stay on the caste survey, which is on the verge of completion, would cause irreparable loss to the state and would adversely affect the entire exercise.”
No harm in completing the exercise, pleads govt
“The state has already completed more than 80 per cent of the survey work. In some districts, less than 10 per cent of work is pending. The entire machinery is at ground level. There shall be no harm in completing the exercise subject to final adjudication of the dispute,” the plea said. It added that the collection of caste-based data is a constitutional mandate under articles 15 and 16 apart from other provisions.
The time gap to complete the survey would adversely affect the exercise since this would not be contemporaneous data,” the state government said.
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 supposed to continue till May 15.
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