The Patna High Court on Thursday, 4 May, put an interim stay on the caste-based survey initiated by the Bihar state government.
The Court directed the State government to immediately stop the caste-based survey and ensure that the data already collected are secured and not shared with anybody till final orders are passed in the writ petition.
The Bihar government had launched the exercise in January this year and had aimed at compiling data on each family in a two-phase process. The second phase is presently going on. However, three petitions had been filed in the high court challenging the caste survey. One of the petitioner against the survey is filed by Youth for Equality.
Only a day ago on Wednesday, the high court had reserved its judgment in the case and the division bench of chief justice K Vinod Chandran and justice Madhuresh Prasad had noted that it would grant interim relief to the petitioners if it found that the state government had:
- either exceeded its powers to commission such a survey;
- not followed the due process of law; or
- if there was an infringement of privacy of the respondents
“We will grant you interim relief if there is a violation of any of the three issues, otherwise we will allow them (the state government) to continue (with the exercise),” Justice Chandran had said.
The Court heard the pleas specifically on the directions of the Supreme Court to consider and dispose of the interim application filed in the matter for stay.
