In another setback for the Bihar government, the Supreme Court on Thursday refused to lift the stay on the caste-based survey. The Patna High Court had suspended the enumeration, in its second phase now, till July 4.
Justice Sanjay Karol, who was the former chief justice of the Patna HC, had recused from the hearing on Wednesday. Following this, a bench of Justices Abhay S Oka and Rajesh Bindal refused to grant relief to the Bihar government after noting that the high court had listed the case for final hearing on July 3.
“The impugned order is an interim one and the court has posted the main writ for hearing on July 3. In fact, the state government on May 9 moved applications before the court that were disposed of. Contention of advocate general was specifically rejected that final opinions were expressed. In fact, the high court has observed that the court was open to other contentions when taken up for hearing,” the SC bench observed.
On May 4, a division bench of Chief Justice K Vinod Chandran of the Patna HC had pronounced its interim decision to stay the caste survey till further hearing on July 3.
“We find that the caste-based survey is a census in the garb of a survey; the power to carry out which is exclusively on the union parliament that has also enacted a Census Act, 1948. Prima facie, we are of the opinion that the state has no power to carry out a caste-based survey, in the manner in which it is fashioned now, that would amount to a census thus impinging upon the legislative power of the union parliament,” Justice Chandran’s order stated.
The following arguments were made by the state government before the SC:
- The HC erroneously examined the merits of the case at the interim stage and touched upon the legislative competence of the state
- The HC wrongly accepted the contention that the survey was a census, and that personal information regarding the same will be shared with MLAs.
- The state would have to incur massive financial costs if the survey is stopped at this stage
- “Budgetary allowance has been made. People have been mobilised. Nobody is contesting the situation, as such surveys have been undertaken by other states as well. This particular survey will require 10 more days. There is a mobilisation taking place. Our survey is not on a 100% basis like a census but voluntary… There is a distinction between survey and census. Census is on a particular date and for the whole population,” senior advocate Shyam Divan said.
The SC division bench asked, “The high court has gone into it and said stop for now… The high court had flagged data privacy issues. All we are saying is, there are prima facie findings recorded. Why should we interfere?”
The SC, however, agreed to list the case on July 14 if the hearing before the HC does not commence on July 3.
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