Bihar caste census: Supreme Court to commence final hearing in April

New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Monday said that it will commence from April 16 the final hearing on a batch of petitions filed against the caste survey in Bihar.

Observing that the matter requires a detailed hearing, a bench of Justices Sanjiv Khanna and Dipankar Datta ordered listing of the batch of pleas on April 16.

The bench said that it will decide on the next date of listing if intervention applications filed in the matter should be allowed or not.

The top court had repeatedly refused to pass any interim order staying the survey process or publication of the outcomes of the survey, though it was contended that the matter will become infructuous post publication of the data.

The clutch of special leave petitions filed before the Supreme Court challenges the Patna High Court’s order dismissing pleas challenging the survey. The petitioners before the apex court pleaded that only the Union government had the authority to conduct a census in India and the Bihar government had no authority to decide and notify the conduct of a caste survey in the state.