Supreme Court to hear plea challenging Bihar's caste-based census on January 13

The Supreme Court on Wednesday agreed to examine a plea seeking quashing the Bihar government's decision to conduct a caste survey in the state, on Friday.

A counsel mentioned the plea for hearing before a bench headed by Chief Justice D Y Chandrachud.

The petition has been filed by one Akhilesh Kumar, a social worker from Nalanda, contending that this decision fell under the domain of the Union government.

The bench, also comprising Justice P.S. Narasimha, allowed a plea for listing of the matter on Friday.

The plea sought quashing of the notification issued by deputy secretary, government of Bihar, in connection with the caste survey and to refrain the authorities concerned from conducting the exercise.

It added that there is no provision in the Constitution regarding caste configuration.

The plea, which has been drawn by advocate Barun Kumar Sinha, argued that move was also against the basic structure of the Constitution, besides being "illegal, arbitrary, irrational, discriminatory and unconstitutional".

It further contended that according to Section-3 of the Census Act, 1948, the Centre is empowered to take census in the whole or any part of the territory of India.

The plea added that the scheme of Census Act, 1948, establishes that caste census is not contemplated in the law and the state government has no authority in law to conduct caste census.

It claimed that the notification dated June 6, 2022, violated Article 14 of the Constitution, which provides for equality before law and equal protection of the law.

"The state government by executive orders cannot conduct caste census in the absence of legislation on the subject.The impugned notification for caste census in the State of Bihar lacks statutory flavour and constitutional sanction," it said.