Patna: A day after the Patna High Court put an interim stay on the caste-based survey in Bihar till July 3, the state government on Friday filed a petition in the court for an early hearing over the matter, sources said. It is learnt that the Nitish Kumar led Bihar government has filed the petition requesting the matter be heard by a bench led by the Chief Justice of the Patna High Court.
Also read: Patna High Court halts caste census in Bihar till July 3
Sources said that Deputy Secretary of General Administration Rajneesh Kumar has filed the affidavit in the high court in this regard. It may be noted that on Thursday, the Patna High Court, in its interim order, put an immediate stay on the ongoing caste based survey while fixing the date of July 3 for the next hearing. Pertinently, caste based survey which was undertaken by the Bihar government in January this year is being done in two phases in the state.
In the first phase, the enumerators surveyed the houses against unique identification numbers. The second phase of the caste-based survery started from 15 Apr. this year. It was to be completed by May 15. However, the High Court putting an interim stay on the survey has stalled the entire exercise. The Nitish Kumar led Bihar government had decided to undertake the caste census in Bihar only last year.
On Jun 9, 2022, a notification was issued by the Bihar government to conduct caste-based enumeration in the state for which Rs 500 crore was approved by the cabinet. The process of caste based enumeration started from 7 Jan. this year.
