Patna High Court Dismisses All Petitions Contesting Caste Survey Conducted In Bihar

The Patna High Court dismisses all petitions contesting the validity and legality of the caste census conducted in Bihar.

On Tuesday, the Patna High Court upheld the validity and legality of a caste survey being carried out by the Bihar government.

The state government’s June 2022 caste survey was the subject of petitions that the court also dismissed.

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Rejecting all petitions filed

After a hearing before a bench presided over by Chief Justice K Vinod Chandran, lawyer for one of the petitioners, advocate Dinu Kumar, told reporters outside the court that he will appeal the decision to the Supreme Court.
“We do not know the details of the order. In the open court, the bench said it was rejecting all the petitions,” he said.

Advocate Ritika Sharma said that the high court has dismissed all petitions and now the government can continue with the caste census. “We will approach the Supreme Court now,” she added.

BJP supported caste census

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Stating that BJP had supported the caste census, Bihar LoP Vijay Kumar Sinha said, “They (Bihar Government) had failed to explain the objective of caste census and further failed to put the report in the public domain.”
Earlier, in an appeal filed before the top court against the May 4 order of the high court, the Bihar government had said the stay will adversely affect the entire exercise.

The state government had maintained that the collection of caste-based data is a constitutional mandate under Articles 15 and 16 of the Constitution.
The first round of caste survey in Bihar was conducted between January 7 and 21.