Patna high court halts caste survey in Bihar

The Patna high court on Thursday temporarily suspended Bihar's ongoing caste-based survey, saying the controversial exercise in its present form virtually amounted to a census that impinged upon Parliament's domain.

- Ruchir Kumar

The order by a two-judge bench deals a major blow to Bihar's plans of successfully counting the castes of all 104 million people in the state for the first time since Independence, and is also a political setback to the state's ruling coalition.

"We direct the state government to immediately stop the caste-based survey and ensure that the data already collected are secured and not shared with anybody till final orders are passed in the writ petition," said the bench of chief justice K Vinod Chandran and justice Madhuresh Prasad.

"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, which would amount to a census, thus impinging upon the legislative power of the Union Parliament," it added.

The court fixed July 3 as the next date for the hearing of a bunch of petitions against the survey. In the evening, the state's general administration department issued an order instructing all district magistrates to stop the exercise.

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) demanded the resignation of chief minister Nitish Kumar, who had spearheaded the demand for the caste survey even as the government pushed back.

"As per the information we have, it is an interim, and not the final order. Upon a perusal of the order, the government will think of options like going in appeal," said deputy chief minister Tejashwi Yadav.

Bihar began the exercise in January when it conducted a physical count of all household. But the operative part of the exercise - when 320,000 enumerators fanned out across the state to ask people their caste and 17 other socio-economic indicators - began on April 15 and was scheduled to end on May 15. But the court's preliminary order sided with a raft of petitions that raised objections.