The Patna High Court on Thursday, 4 May, put an interim stay on the caste-based survey initiated by the Bihar state government. The matter would be heard on 3 July next.
The Bihar government had launched the exercise in January this year and had aimed at compiling data on each family in a two-phase process. However, several petitions had been filed in the high court challenging the caste survey.
Only a day ago on Wednesday, the high court had reserved its judgment in the case and the division bench of chief justice K Vinod Chandran and justice Madhuresh Prasad had noted that it would grant interim relief to the petitioners if it found that the state government had:
either exceeded its powers to commission such a survey;
not followed the due process of law; or
if there was an infringement of privacy of the respondents
“We will grant you interim relief if there is a violation of any of the three issues, otherwise we will allow them (the state government) to continue (with the exercise),” Justice Chandran had said.