The issue of caste-based census in Bihar has now reached the Supreme Court as the Bihar government on Wednesday filed a caveat in the Supreme Court saying that if a petition is filed in the Supreme Court against the order of the Patna High Court, then the court should not issue any order without hearing them.
On August 1, the Patna High Court had dismissed all the petitions filed against the caste enumeration. Earlier On May 4, the High Court, while hearing the petitions filed against the caste-based census, had put a temporary stay on it. Later, the High Court had upheld the Nitish government’s decision to conduct the caste-based census.
The Patna High Court heard the petition in this case for five consecutive days last month. After hearing the arguments of both the sides, the court had reserved its verdict on July 7. Everyone was waiting for the court’s decision for many days. On Tuesday, the HC issued a nearly 100-page order. The main fact is that the court has rejected all those petition, in which a stay was sought, arguing that the duty of the census is only for the Centre and not for the state.
Last year, the Nitish government had issued a notification for conducting caste enumeration in Bihar. After this, work started on it in January 2023. The caste enumeration was conducted in two phases. The first phase started in January and the second in April. During the second phase, the Patna High Court temporarily stayed the caste enumeration. Due to this, the work on this stopped in Bihar. Also, on the orders of the court, the data collected till then was preserved.
Nitish government has been in favour of conducting caste census for a long time. It had passed the proposal of caste census on 18 February 2019 and again on 27 February 2020 in Bihar Legislative Assembly and Legislative Council. However, the Centre has been against it. The Centre had made it clear by filing an affidavit in the Supreme Court that caste census will not be conducted. The Centre said that counting the OBC castes is a long and difficult task. The Bihar government had decided to conduct caste census last year. Its work started from January 2023. It was to be completed by May.