The Supreme Court has announced that it will hear the pleas challenging the Patna High Court’s decision from August 1, which approved the caste survey in Bihar. The apex court has slated the hearing for October 6. The bench, consisting of Justices Sanjiv Khanna and SVN Bhatti, communicated this to Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, noting that the pleas have been listed for the upcoming hearing.
This announcement from the Supreme Court bench came after Mehta requested an adjournment in a separate matter related to the Haryana State Industrial and Infrastructure Development Corporation Ltd, seeking its listing for Friday.
Earlier this week, the Nitish Kumar-led government in Bihar unveiled the results of its highly anticipated caste survey, just months ahead of the 2024 Parliamentary elections. The findings indicated that OBCs (Other Backward Classes) and EBCs (Extremely Backward Classes) together make up an impressive 63% of the state’s entire population. The data further revealed that the state’s population is slightly over 13.07 crore, with the EBCs (36%) being the most significant social segment, followed by the OBCs at 27.13%.
The survey also highlighted that the Yadavs, the OBC group to which Deputy Chief Minister Tejashwi Yadav belongs, are the most populous, accounting for 14.27% of the total. Additionally, Dalits, also recognized as the Scheduled Castes, comprise 19.65% of the state’s population, while nearly 22 lakh individuals (or 1.68%) belong to the Scheduled Tribes.
Several petitions have been filed against the Patna High Court’s August 1 order, which greenlit the caste survey in Bihar. Among these is a plea by the NGO ‘Ek Soch Ek Paryas’ and another by Nalanda resident Akhilesh Kumar. Kumar’s petition argues against the state government’s notification for the survey, asserting that
“in terms of the constitutional mandate, only the Union government is empowered to conduct a census.”
The Patna High Court, in its 101-page verdict, stated,
“We find the action of the state to be perfectly valid, initiated with due competence with the legitimate aim of providing development with justice.”
Following this endorsement of the caste survey as “valid,” the state government promptly suspended all ongoing teacher training programs to expedite the survey’s completion.
Senior advocate C S Vaidyanathan, representing a petitioner, voiced concerns over making the survey data public, arguing that it would
“infringe people’s right to privacy.”
