Lagatar24 Desk
New Delhi, Jan 20: The Supreme Court on Friday rejected petitions that questioned the Bihar government’s choice to carry out a caste-based census in the State.
The caste survey was started by the Bihar government on January 7 of this year. A mobile application will be used to digitally collect data on every family as part of the survey from the panchayat to the district level. The Supreme Court was urged by the arguments to overturn the State Government’s notification of the Caste-based Census.
However, a bench made up of Justices B.R. Gavai and Vikram Nath was unimpressed with the argument presented by the petitioners’ counsels and doubted their intent when they filed the petition.
At the outset Justice Gavai noted, “So, this is a publicity interest litigation?”
The Judge was concerned,“If this is granted then how will they determine how reservation is to be granted?”
After briefly hearing, he asked them to ‘go and file before the High Court’.
The Bench dismissed all the petitions as withdrawn granting liberty to seek appropriate remedies in law.
Notably, on 11th January, 2023, the matter was mentioned for urgent posting before the Chief Justice of India DY Chandrachud and he agreed to list the petition.
The petitions, essentially, seek to quash the State Government’s notification on the ground that the subject of the census falls in List 1 of the Seventh Schedule of the Constitution and only the Union Government is contemplated to conduct the census.
According to the general framework of the Census Act of 1948, the central government is the only one with the authority to make rules, appoint census staff, requisition locations for conducting censuses, pay compensation, have the authority to obtain information, and delegate functions of the central government with regard to requisitioning, among other things.
It is further maintained that a caste-based census is not supported by the Census Act of 1948. The official notification was criticised for “violating the fundamental framework of the Constitution.”
