New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Wednesday adjourned hearing on the clutch of special leave petitions filed against the Patna High Court’s order which had given a green signal to the Nitish Kumar-led Bihar government to conduct a caste survey in state.
A bench comprising Justices Sanjiv Khanna and S.V.N. Bhatti posted the matter for hearing on October 3 in view of the letter circulated by one of the parties seeking adjournment.
The top court had repeatedly refused to pass any interim order staying the survey process or publication of the outcomes of the survey, though it was contended that the matter will become infructuous post publication of the data.
On August 24, Chief Minister Nitish Kumar said that the caste-based survey in Bihar is complete and will be out in public soon.
Last week, the Union government withdrew its affidavit which had said that nobody except it is entitled to conduct a census or any exercise akin to a census.
The fresh affidavit filed by the Office of the Registrar General in the Union Home Ministry retracted the paragraph saying that “no other body under the Constitution or otherwise (except Centre) is entitled to conduct the exercise of either Census or any action akin to census”.
The Supreme Court on August 21 had allowed the Union government a period of one week to file its reply after Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, appearing for the Centre, said that he wanted to put the constitutional and legal position on record.
The petitioners before the apex court had pleaded that the survey process violated the right to privacy and only the Union government had the authority to conduct a census in India, adding that the state government had no authority to decide and notify the conduct of a caste-based survey in Bihar.
“We find the action of the State to be perfectly valid, initiated with due competence, with the legitimate aim of providing ‘Development with Justice’,” said the High Court on August 1, while dismissing the batch of pleas, which claimed that the Bihar government was doing the survey to take “advantage” in elections.
(IANS)
