The Supreme Court on Wednesday agreed to hear a public interest litigation on January 20, which challenged the ongoing caste census in the State of Bihar.
The matter was today mentioned before Chief Justice of India (CJI) D.Y. Chandrachud by Advocate Barun Kumar Sinha, which listed it for hearing in the third week of January.
Filed by Nalanda resident Akhilesh Kumar, the PIL sought quashing of the June 6, 2022 notification issued by the Deputy Secretary of Bihar government in respect to conducting a caste-based survey in the state, stating that such exercise violated the basic structure of the Constitution.
The State of Bihar kickstarted the caste-based Census on January 7 this year, claiming that the exercise would provide scientific data for carrying out welfare schemes for weaker sections of the society.
The petition further sought directions to the authorities concerned to refrain from conducting the exercise, calling the same both ‘discriminatory’ and ‘unconstitutional’.
As per the plea, the notification violated Article 14 of the Constitution, which provided for equality before law and equal protection of the law, adding that it was “illegal, arbitrary, irrational and unconstitutional”.
The PIL pointed out that if the proclaimed purpose of the caste-based survey was to accommodate the people of state suffering from caste persecution, the distinction on the basis of caste and country of origin was both irrational and unjustified.
It added that none of these distinctions corresponded with the ostensible purpose of the law.
The petition raised six important points, which are:
– Whether the Constitution of India gave a State Government the right to conduct caste census?
– Was the notification issued by the Deputy Secretary of Bihar Government on June 6, 2022 against the Census Act 1948?
– Did the Constitution legally permit a state government to issue notification of caste census, in the absence of law?
– Whether the decision to conduct caste-based census was taken unanimously by all political parties of Bihar?
– Was the decision of political parties for Bihar to conduct caste census binding on the government?
– Whether the June 6 notification of Bihar government was against the verdict delivered by the Constitution Bench of the Supreme Court on January 2,2017 in the Abhiram Singh vs C.D. Commachen case.