It’s not caste census but caste-based survey: Tejashwi Yadav

Patna (Bihar) [India], January 11 (ANI): After a petition was filed in the Supreme Court against Bihar’s government’s decision to conduct a caste survey, Deputy Chief Minister Tejashwi Yadav on Wednesday said that it is not a ‘caste census but a caste-based census’.

He said that the exercise will give more data about the financial condition of people. Speaking to media persons, the Deputy Chief Minister said, “It is not a caste census but a caste-based survey. It will give data about the financial condition of people. Our aim is to know the ground reality.

If it is wrong then all types of counting be it of Hindus, Muslims, SC, ST and animals are wrong. It was unanimously passed in Assembly by all parties including BJP,” said Yadav.

The Supreme Court on Wednesday agreed to give an urgent hearing to the petition challenging the Bihar government’s notification for conducting the Caste Census in the state.

A lawyer mentioned the plea before the Supreme Court seeking an urgent hearing of the petition challenging the Bihar Government’s notification for conducting the Caste Census in the State. A bench led by Chief Justice of India DY Chandrachud said that it will hear the petition on Friday.

Meanwhile, another petition was moved in the Supreme 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 on/from the impugned Notification dated 06.06.2022 issued by Deputy Secretary, Government of Bihar, whereby decision of the Government to conduct caste census has been communicated to the media and public at large.”

The petitioner Akhilesh Kumar through Advocates Barun Kumar Sinha and Abhishek said that the decision of the State of Bihar is illegal, arbitrary, irrational, unconstitutional and without the authority of law.

According to the petitioner’s submission, there are a total of more than 200 castes in Bihar and all those castes are classified as General Category, OBC, EBC, Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribes.

According to 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 sub-castes which are included in the Scheduled Caste category and there are 29 about Sub Castes which are included in the scheduled category.

“The 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, who urged the top court to issue a direction for quashing the impugned Notification dated January 6, 2022, and to direct the authority concerned to refrain from conducting the caste census as it is against the basic structure of the Constitution of India.

The caste-based headcount will be conducted across all 38 districts in two stages.
In the first phase, which will be over by January 21, the number of all households in the state will be counted.

The second phase of the survey, which is likely to be held from April 1 to April 30, will collect data pertaining to people of all castes, sub-castes, socioeconomic conditions, etc.

The decision of a caste census was taken by the Bihar cabinet on June 2 last year, months after the Centre ruled out such an exercise in the Census.

The survey would cover an estimated population of 12.70 crores in an estimated 2.58 crore households in 38 districts, which have 534 blocks and 261 urban local bodies.

The survey would be completed by May 31, 2023.