Yesterday, the Supreme Court agrees to hear a pleas challenging the orders of the Patna High Court giving the go-ahead for a caste survey in Bihar.

The divison bench of Justices Sanjiv Khanna and SVN Bhatti told Solicitor General Tushar Mehta that it has listed the pleas for hearing.

The bench made the remark after Mehta sought adjournment in a different matter pertaining to the Haryana State Industrial and Infrastructure Development Corporation Ltd and sought listing it on Friday.

On Monday, the Nitish Kumar government in Bihar released findings of its much-awaited caste survey months ahead of the 2024 Parliamentary elections, which revealed that OBCs and EBCs constitute a whopping 63% of the state’s total population.

According to the data released, the state’s total population stood at a little over 13.07 crore, out of which the Extremely Backward Classes (36 per cent) were the largest social segment followed by the Other Backward Classes at 27.13 per cent.

Earlier, the hearing regarding this matter was to be held on September 6, but following the demand of Bihar government, the hearing was postponed till October 3. Meanwhile, the petitioner told the court today that the Bihar government has released the caste census report.

 Bihar government had told the court that its lawyers were busy with some work, hence the next date for arguments was required. This request of the state government was accepted by the court. After this, the hearing was postponed till October 3. Today, a bench of judges Sanjeev Khanna and SVN Bhatti will hear the case.

It is noteworthy that earlier a petition was filed in the Patna High Court to ban the release of caste census data, but the court ruled in favor of the Bihar government in this matter.

 After this the state government started the counting work again. The court had declared this step of the state government legally valid

The petitioners reached the Supreme Court against this decision. While he also requested not to release the caste census report at present, the Supreme Court clearly refused to accept this. 

The petitioners have argued in the Supreme Court that only the Central Government has the right to conduct caste census. At the same time, the state government violates privacy by doing this.

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