SC lists pleas challenging Bihar caste survey for final hearing on April 16

NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court on Monday fixed April 16 for a final hearing on a batch of pleas challenging the Patna High Court order upholding the Bihar government’s decision to conduct a caste survey.

A bench of justices Sanjiv Khanna and Dipankar Datta said that the matter required a detailed hearing.

On January 2, the top court had asked the Bihar government to put in public domain the break-up of the caste survey data to enable those aggrieved to challenge the findings.

It had refused to grant any kind of interim relief to the petitioners who have challenged the caste survey. On October 6, 2023, the top court questioned the Bihar government as to why it published its caste survey data.

It had, however, refused to restrain the state government from making public further data, and said it may examine if the state has the power to conduct such an exercise.

It had issued a formal notice on a batch of pleas challenging the August 1, 2023 order of the Patna High Court that gave the go-ahead for the caste survey in Bihar. It rejected the petitioners’ contention that the state government has already published some data preempting a stay. They had sought a complete stay on further publication of data.

On October 2, 2023, the Nitish Kumar government released the findings of the caste survey, a move its detractors claimed was made keeping in mind the 2024 Parliamentary elections. Kumar was then heading the JD(U)-RJD-Congress alliance government. He rejoined the NDA last month.

The data revealed that the OBCs and EBCs constituted a whopping 63 per cent of the state’s population.