Supreme Court
Photo: AMAR UJALA
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The Supreme Court has to decide whether caste-based census was being done in Bihar by counting every person or a survey to know the caste of every person. The Patna High Court, in an interim judgment on May 04, had rejected the argument of the Bihar government that it was a caste-based enumeration. The Patna High Court had given an interim stay on the caste-based census in Bihar, giving the next date on July 03, so the government appealed to give an early date. When that appeal also went in vain, considering the High Court’s interim decision as a sign of the final decision, the Bihar government approached the Supreme Court. It will be heard in the Supreme Court on Wednesday.
On what points Bihar government is backward
This case has been returned twice from the Supreme Court
This case is reaching the Supreme Court for the third time. Earlier, petitioners had appealed twice to declare the caste census in Bihar unconstitutional. Both the times the Supreme Court made it a High Court issue. Bihar government got relief both times, but when the Patna High Court gave the date of July giving an interim verdict against the decision of the state’s Nitish Kumar government, now for the third time this case has reached the Supreme Court on behalf of the government. It will be heard on number 47 in number six court on Wednesday.
Talks are still pending on many issues in the High Court
Even though the state government has approached the Supreme Court considering the interim decision as final, but the lawyers associated with the case in the Patna High Court claim that many issues remain to be debated here. As of now only issues like its constitutionality, insecurity of data and contempt of Supreme Court have been debated; Petitioners have not been heard in the High Court on many issues like changing the name of castes, trying to establish sub-castes as castes, calling eunuchs a caste, not determining the caste of Sikhs.
