Supreme Court Refuses To Stop Bihar Caste Survey

New Delhi: There’s good news for the Bihar government vis-à-vis the caste-based survey, which had been rolled out in January, but subsequently ran into legal hurdles.

On Monday, the Supreme Court refused to stop the ongoing caste survey, and will hear a petition challenging Patna High Court’s verdict upholding its validity on August 14. A bench of Justices Sanjiv Khanna and SVN Bhatti was hearing a petition filed by NGO ‘Ek Soch Ek Paryas’, reported PTI.

Replying to senior advocate Mukul Rohatgi, who represented the petitioner and sought a pause in the caste survey, Justice Khanna said: “Let the survey continue for some time. If it has completed 80 per cent, let it reach 90 per cent. We will hear this plea in detail on Monday, August 14.”

Patna High Court last week dismissed all petitions challenging the conduct of a caste survey by the Bihar government.

The Bihar government is aiming to collect data of every family digitally through an app called Bijaga.

In the first phase of the survey – being conducted by General Administration Department of Bihar government — household counting exercise was taken up in January.

The second phase commenced on April 15, focusing on data related to people’s caste and socio-economic conditions.

The state government had planned to complete the entire process by May this year. However, the high court paused the caste census on May 4, before dismissing all petitions challenging the survey on August 1.

The matter then went to the country’s top court.

A sum of Rs 500 crore is being spent by the state government from its contingency fund for the exercise.