Patna: In a shot in the arm for the Nitish Kumar government, the Patna High Court on Tuesday dismissed pleas challenging the decision to conduct the caste-based survey in Bihar.
The high court — which had stayed the survey on 4 May — had reserved its judgement after hearing the case last on 7 July.
The decision announced by a bench headed by Chief justice K. Vinod Chandran has cleared the state government’s hurdle in releasing a caste survey.
The caste survey in Bihar was divided in two parts, with the first leg beginning 7 January. The household counting exercise was concluded on 21 January. The second phase, which consisted of identification of the caste of the people, began on 21 April and was to conclude by the end of May.
The ruling Janata Dal (United) promptly came out with a statement hailing the court’s decision. “The hurdles created by anti-survey forces have been removed by the Patna High Court. Now, Nitishji will complete the work, and it will benefit all sections (of the society),” JD(U) spokesperson Neeraj Kumar told ThePrint.
Deputy Chief Minister Tejashwi Yadav tweeted in Hindi that the caste survey will be a huge revolutionary step in the direction of economic justice.
हमारी सरकार के जाति आधारित सर्वे से प्रामाणिक, विश्वसनीय और वैज्ञानिक आँकड़े प्राप्त होंगे। इससे अतिपिछड़े, पिछड़े तथा सभी वर्गों के गरीबों को सर्वाधिक लाभ प्राप्त होगा। जातीय गणना आर्थिक न्याय की दिशा में बहुत बड़ा क्रांतिकारी कदम होगा।
हमारी माँग है कि केंद्र सरकार जातीय गणना… https://t.co/Nwurx50awU
— Tejashwi Yadav (@yadavtejashwi) August 1, 2023
BJP state chief Samrat Choudhary sought to highlight his party’s efforts to facilitate the survey. “We resent the fact that the ruling alliance is trying to take credit for it. We were all along in support. We voted inside the assembly in its favour, and were a part of the all-parties delegation which met the Prime Minister in 2021,” Choudhary told ThePrint.
Even before he led an all-party delegation to meet PM Modi in August 2021 to demand a caste census, Nitish has been pushing the idea of a caste survey on the grounds that it would help the government to plan its development schemes for all sections of the society.
Similarly, Rashtriya Janata Dal chief Lalu Prasad had made the demand just before the 2019 assembly polls. While the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has towed the line of its rival to support the caste census, some of its leaders including former state president Sanjay Jaiswal have openly made statements saying it would fuel caste tension in the society,
Also Read: Bihar caste census stay complicates it for other states. Onus is now on Modi govt to fix it
Why hurry for caste survey
When Nitish left the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance in 2022 and joined the RJD to form the Mahagathbandhan government in Bihar, a caste survey before the 2024 general election was on his top priority after the Union government turned down demands for a caste census.
Political watchers in Bihar say that the move is to rejuvenate the Mandal politics of the early 1990s as its electoral returns were dwindling in successive polls after the BJP gained ground in Bihar courtesy its penetration into a section of backward votes.
The Nitish government’s exercise had received a jolt on 4 May when the Patna High Court — after hearing a PIL on the issue — put an interim stay on the caste survey.
Back then, the high court maintained that the state government had no powers to carry out the caste survey, “Prima facie , we are of the opinion that the state government has no power to carry out the caste survey, in the manner, which is fashioned now, which would amount to a survey,” the bench said.
Subsequently, the Patna High Court heard the case again on five subsequent days and reserved its decision on 7 July.
(Edited by Tony Rai)
Also Read: No caste without code—Bihar is counting and writing a new identity politics