Court Accepts Early Hearing in Caste Census Stay in Bihar

Patna: Two days after the Patna High Court stayed the caste census in Bihar, the court on Saturday accepted the state government's plea seeking an early hearing in the matter. The court will hear the case on May 9. Now all eyes are on that date as politics heat up in the state following the court staying the caste census.

Earlier, the court fixed July 3 as the next hearing date after, in its interim order, staying the caste census with immediate effect on May 4.

Amid a war of words between the ruling Mahagathbandhan and the opposition Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) over caste census stayed, the court accepted the interim application for an early hearing. The state’s advocate general PK Shahi on behalf of the state government, on Friday, filed an interim application in the court for an early case hearing.

Last Wednesday, a court division bench reserved its order after hearing the petition seeking an interim stay on the caste census. It pronounced its interim order to stay the caste census on Thursday. It was seen as a big jolt to the Mahagathbandhan government led by Nitish Kumar.

The court also directed the state government to ensure the safety of the data collected and not to share it with anyone.

Sahi said the state government was entirely right to conduct a caste census as it had the authority and the power to know about the socio-economic conditions of the population to plan out welfare schemes.

The government had also allocated specific funds in the supplementary budget for conducting the exercise. On Friday, the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) chief Lalu Prasad said caste census is necessary as it is a demand of most people. It is unavoidable.

Lalu targeted BJP, which has been voicing against the caste census, saying that those against the caste census are against equality and humanity. "Why is the BJP afraid of counting the majority of backward castes?” he questioned.

Lalu said the stand of the BJP has exposed its devious trick and cleverness on the caste census, and people understood it.

Similarly, Kumar asked why some people have a problem with the caste census. "We decided to conduct it because all parties unanimously supported,” Kumar said.

Kumar reiterated that the Bihar Legislative Assembly and Bihar Legislative Council had unanimously passed a resolution to conduct it.

However, one after another, BJP leaders attacked the Mahagathbandhan government for conducting a caste census and claimed it was being conducted to create social tension and polarisation.

The advocate of petitioner Youth for Equality, an organisation against caste-based policies and reservations, expressed happiness over the interim order of the court that stayed the caste census for now. He said the decision of the state government to conduct a caste census was arbitrary and unconstitutional. It also violated the right to privacy under Article 21 of the Constitution.

The second and final phase of the caste census in Bihar began last month, ignoring the opposition by some powerful sections of the society. The caste census in Bihar was probably the country's first exercise, considered a significant move of ruling Mahagathbandhan ahead of the 2024 Lok Sabha polls.

The Mahagathbandhan government led by Nitish Kumar conducted the first phase of the caste "survey" in January 2023 after the Centre ruled out such a census two years ago.

The two-phased census was seen as part of the social justice agenda of Mahagathbandhan. It will likely help the grand coalition consolidate its social support base by fulfilling a significant promise to Other Backward Classes (OBC) and Economically Backward Classes (EBC).

Nitish Kumar, the de facto chief of the ruling Janata Dal (United) (JD-U), and another major ruling ally, RJD chief Lalu Prasad, are pro-Mandal and have been demanding a caste census in Bihar since 2015. They have repeatedly claimed that the caste census data will help uplift deprived people as development plans would be made based on new socio-economic data.