Court Rejects Bihar Government's Request For Early Hearing On Caste Census

The Patna High Court on Tuesday rejected a plea filed by the Bihar government which sought a preponement of hearing in the writ pleas challenging the caste enumeration and economic survey in the State.

The division bench of Chief Justice KV Chandran said that the hearing will take place on July 3.

"The high court has rejected the appeal and has given clear directions that a hearing will be held from July 3 and no adjournment will be given," Dinu Kumar, petitioners' advocate on Bihar government's appeal said.

The State government said in its petition that the court has given its final decision on the issues raised in these PILs. For this reason, these petitions should be heard and executed before July 3. The court, however, cancelled this petition of the state government and the date of the hearing has been fixed on July 3 only.

Earlier on May 4, the Patna High Court put an interim stay on the enumeration of castes and economic survey in Bihar.

While passing an interim order, a division bench of Chief Justice KV Chandran directed the state government not to share and use the data collected during this period.

In the petition filed by the state government, it has been said that since Patna HC has made it clear that the state government does not have the statutory authority to conduct a caste census, there is no reason to hear these petitions on July 3.

The executive does not have the jurisdiction to conduct a caste census. This has been clarified by the court in its interim order.

The court also said that the privacy of the public is violated by the caste census. No law has been made by the legislature in this regard.

Advocates Dinu Kumar, Ritu Raj and Abhinav Srivastava on behalf of the petitioners and advocate General PK Shahi on behalf of the State presented the parties before the court.