Patna HC stays Bihar govt’s caste survey, says state has no power to carry out the census

By PTI

PATNA: The Patna High Court on Thursday ordered a carry on the caste survey being carried out by the state authorities.

Hearing a bunch of petitions, a division bench of Chief Justice Okay Vinod Chandran and Justice Madhuresh Prasad directed the federal authorities to straight away stop the caste-based survey, and make sure that the data already collected are secured and by no means shared with anybody till final orders are handed.

The courtroom docket mounted July 7 as the next date for the listening to.

“We are of the considered opinion that the petitioners have made out a prima facie case against the continuation of the process of caste-based survey, as attempted by the State of Bihar. There is also the question raised of data integrity and security which has to be more elaborately addressed by the State,” the courtroom docket acknowledged.

“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.

ALSO READ | Can Bihar’s caste survey present a headache for PM Modi?

Expressing concern, the courtroom docket well-known the federal authorities’s intention to share data from the survey with the leaders of assorted occasions inside the state assembly.

“There definitely arises the larger question of the right to privacy, which the Supreme Court has held to be a facet of the right to life,” it acknowledged.

The first spherical of caste surveys in Bihar was carried out between January 7 and 21.

The second spherical started on April 15 and was presupposed to proceed till May 15.

The petitions sooner than the extreme courtroom docket was filed by a social outfit and some folks, who had last month moved the Supreme Court after their request for an ‘interim assist’ inside the kind of a carry on the survey was turned down.

The apex courtroom docket refused to intervene as correctly and referred them once more to the extreme courtroom docket with directions that their petition be decided expeditiously.

Chief Minister Nitish Kumar has maintained that the state should not be conducting a caste census nevertheless solely amassing information related to people’s monetary standing and their caste so that explicit steps may presumably be taken by the federal authorities to serve them greater.

PATNA: The Patna High Court on Thursday ordered a carry on the caste survey being carried out by the state authorities.

Hearing a bunch of petitions, a division bench of Chief Justice Okay Vinod Chandran and Justice Madhuresh Prasad directed the federal authorities to straight away stop the caste-based survey, and make sure that the data already collected are secured and by no means shared with anybody till final orders are handed.

The courtroom docket mounted July 7 as the next date for the listening to.googletag.cmd.push(function() googletag.present(‘div-gpt-ad-8052921-2’); );

“We are of the considered opinion that the petitioners have made out a prima facie case against the continuation of the process of caste-based survey, as attempted by the State of Bihar. There is also the question raised of data integrity and security which has to be more elaborately addressed by the State,” the courtroom docket acknowledged.

“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.

ALSO READ | Can Bihar’s caste survey present a headache for PM Modi?

Expressing concern, the courtroom docket well-known the federal authorities’s intention to share data from the survey with the leaders of assorted occasions inside the state assembly.

“There definitely arises the larger question of the right to privacy, which the Supreme Court has held to be a facet of the right to life,” it acknowledged.

The first spherical of caste surveys in Bihar was carried out between January 7 and 21.

The second spherical started on April 15 and was presupposed to proceed till May 15.

The petitions sooner than the extreme courtroom docket was filed by a social outfit and some folks, who had last month moved the Supreme Court after their request for an ‘interim assist’ inside the kind of a carry on the survey was turned down.

The apex courtroom docket refused to intervene as correctly and referred them once more to the extreme courtroom docket with directions that their petition be decided expeditiously.

Chief Minister Nitish Kumar has maintained that the state should not be conducting a caste census nevertheless solely amassing information related to people’s monetary standing and their caste so that explicit steps may presumably be taken by the federal authorities to serve them greater.