The Supreme Court refuses to ban caste enumeration in Bihar for the time being; the next hearing is on August 28th.

A division bench of Justice Sanjeev Khanna and Justice SVN Bhatti accepted Solicitor General Tushar Mehta’s demand for seven days to file a reply on the future results of the caste census, appearing for the Central Government.A hearing was held in the Supreme Court on Monday regarding the demand to ban caste enumeration in Bihar.

The apex court said that until the petitioners prove that the caste enumeration is wrong, it will not stay the Bihar government’s decision to conduct the survey. A division bench of Justice Sanjeev Khanna and Justice SVN Bhatti accepted Solicitor General Tushar Mehta’s demand for seven days to file a reply on the future results of the caste census, appearing for the Central Government. Expressing concern about the possible danger of the caste survey, Mehta said before the bench that it could have some possible effects. However, he did not elaborate on the possible impact. Data gathering has been completed.

Senior advocate Mukul Rohatgi, appearing for the petitioner, asked the bench to restrain the Bihar government from releasing the caste census data. The bench said that the work of collecting data regarding caste enumeration has been completed, and now the work of its analysis is pending, and it is a very challenging task. The bench said that the Bihar government has already said that the data already submitted will not be published. On Rohatgi’s demand for a stay, the bench said that first it has to be told that the survey is prima facie not correct, and only then can the order of the Bihar government be stayed.

The next hearing will be on August 28.Senior advocate Shyam Dewan, appearing on behalf of the Bihar government, demanded not to impose any kind of ban on the order of the Patna High Court. After hearing the arguments of all the parties, the bench said that the next hearing of the case would be on August 28. Significantly, during the last hearing, the bench said, What is the harm in conducting a caste survey? Also, the Bihar government had said before the court that it would not release individual data and that only collective data would be released.

The Patna High Court dismissed the petition.On August 1, the Patna High Court dismissed all the petitions challenging the caste enumeration. The High Court had said in its order that the government can get the count done if it wants. The Patna High Court said in its decision that this work of the state government is in accordance with the rules and is completely legal. The state government can get the count done if it wants. The High Court had deemed the caste-based survey in Bihar valid.Soon after this, the Nitish government issued an order regarding the caste census.

Petitions have been filed in the Supreme Court against this decision of the Patna High Court.The last hearing was held on August 18.A petition was filed in the Supreme Court to stay the decision of the Patna High Court. The last hearing on this petition was held on August 18. During this, the court said that the survey work in Bihar had been completed.The data is also being uploaded online. After this, a demand was made on behalf of the petitioner not to release the details of the caste census, but the Supreme Court rejected this demand as well, and the hearing of the case was postponed till August 21.

Harshit Sankhla