Caste-based census: SC refuses to entertain pleas against Bihar govt's decision

The Supreme Court on Friday refused to entertain various pleas challenging the Bihar Governments decision to conduct a castebased census across the stateA bench of justices BR Gavai and Vikram Nath however granted liberty to petitioners to approach the concerned High Court and seek appropriate remedies as per lawThe court remarked that this is a publicity interest litigation It also noted that if such petitions were allowed then how the concerned authorities would determine the number of reservations to be grantedThree separate petitions were filed related to similar issues in the Supreme CourtOne was filed by Ek Soch Ek Prayas the second one by a social worker Akhilesh Kumar and the third one by Vishnu Gupta National President of Hindu SenaThe plea moved by Vishnu Gupta National President of Hindu Sena sought to quash the notification dated June 6 2022 issued by the Deputy Secretary Government of Bihar whereby the State Government of Bihar has notified its decision to conduct a castebased census across the State of BiharThe Petitioner said that the impugned notification and decision of the State of Bihar is unconstitutional illegal arbitrary irrational discriminatory unreasonable and without any authority of lawThe petition mentioned about the Varna system which according to the petitioner refers to the social stratification based on the Varna Four basic categories are defined under this system Brahmins priests teachers intellectuals Kshatriyas warriors kings administrators Vaishyas agriculturalists traders farmers and Shudras workers labourers artisans and every Varna consisted of multiple JatisAlso ReadAir India says taking steps to address gaps after DGCA incidentThe petitioner blamed the Britishers and said that the British while ruling India needed to segregate the society for the purpose of smooth governance and in this regard they invented this colonial construct of CasteOne of the petitions was moved in the top court recently by a social worker Akhilesh Kumar through Advocates Barun Kumar Sinha and Abhishek who in his petition said That the cause of action arose onfrom the impugned Notification dated June 6 2022 issued by Deputy Secretary Government of Bihar whereby the decision of the Government to conduct caste census has been communicated to the media and public at largeThe petitioner Akhilesh Kumar through his advocates Barun Kumar Sinha and Abhishek had said that the decision of the State of Bihar is illegal arbitrary irrational unconstitutional and without the authority of lawAccording to the petitioners submission there are more than 200 castes in Bihar which are classified as General Category OBC Other Backward Class EBC Economically Backward Class Scheduled Caste and Scheduled TribesAs per the plea in the state of Bihar there are 113 castes which are known as OBC and EBC eight castes are included in the category of Upper Caste there are about 22 subcastes which are included in the Scheduled Caste category and there are about 29 Sub Castes which are included in the scheduled categoryThe impugned Notification accords differential treatment without intelligible differentia to the illegal decision of State of Bihar is illegal arbitrary irrational and unconstitutional the petitioner Akhilesh Kumar said urging the top court to issue a direction for quashing the impugned Notification dated June 6 2022 and asked to direct the authority concerned to refrain from conducting the caste census as it is against the basic structure of the Constitution of IndiaThis story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right to alter delete or remove without notice the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever