Supreme Court
– Photo: Amar Ujala
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The Supreme Court has once again put the case of Bihar’s caste-based population census in the hands of the Patna High Court. When the petition reached twice in the name of public interest, the Supreme Court called it a case of the High Court. This time, seeing the interim order against it from the Patna High Court, the Bihar government had reached the Supreme Court without waiting for the next date. In the Supreme Court, Justice Abhay Oak clearly said- “There is a lot of clarity in the interim decision of the Patna High Court, but it will not be heard without the final decision. The Supreme Court cannot give interim relief in this. If the High Court will not give its decision after hearing on its given date of 03 July, then the Supreme Court will hear the arguments here on 14 July.
Government’s side- Many states have done it, our data is on our server
The Supreme Court had made its stand clear before lunch, but when an appeal was made by the Bihar government to hear the arguments, the hearing started. It was argued on behalf of the government that this is a survey, not a census. There is a penalty for not giving information in the census, not in the survey. It was also said on behalf of the government that many states had already done this, so it is not that this is a new work. When the court questioned the point of data security of the High Court, the government said that our data is on the government survey, not on any other cloud. Stopping the process is wastage of money as it was in final stages. The court said that the Patna High Court has caught many problems regarding data security, especially this problem has been seen in the re-checking of the data. Its process needs to be checked. The public prosecutor said that if something like this happens then it can be seen. On this, once again the court reiterated that in this situation where is it appropriate to interfere in the process of Patna High Court? Let him hear on July 3.
There is no census in the name of survey, more documents are telling this
Earlier, Justice Oak said that we have to see if this census is not in the name of survey. He also clearly said on the side of the government that the High Court has given the same order which it has seen prima facie. We are neither saying that the same order is correct nor will we interfere in it now. All we can say is that no relief can be given now. Along with this, we are also not saying that we will not hold the hearing, but first it has to be seen what happens in the High Court on July 03. Justice Bindal of the bench said that most of the documents are describing it as census only.
What was wrong with Nitish’s dream project that stopped the caste census
Court’s refusal to stay caste survey a blow to Grand Alliance government: BJP
The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has termed it as a blow to the Nitish Kumar-led Grand Alliance government after the Supreme Court refused to issue a stay on the Patna High Court order banning caste-based survey in Bihar. Also demanded to convene an all-party meeting to discuss this issue. However, the ruling Janata Dal (United) said the BJP wanted to politicize the issue as the decision to conduct the caste-based survey was taken after holding an all-party meeting and passing a resolution in the state assembly.