Patna HC stays Bihar govt's caste survey

The Patna High Court on Thursday ordered a stay on the caste survey being conducted by the state governmentHearing a bunch of petitions a division bench of Chief Justice K Vinod Chandran and Justice Madhuresh Prasad directed the government to immediately stop the castebased survey and ensure that the data already collected are secured and not shared with anybody till final orders are passedThe court fixed July 7 as the next date for the hearingWe are of the considered opinion that the petitioners have made out a prima facie case against the continuation of the process of castebased survey as attempted by the State of Bihar There is also the question raised of data integrity and security which has to be more elaborately addressed by the State the court saidAlso Read Cant understand why people have problem Nitish Kumar on plea against caste survey in HCPrima facie we are of the opinion that the State has no power to carry out a castebased survey in the manner in which it is fashioned now which would amount to a census thus impinging upon the legislative power of the Union Parliament it addedExpressing concern the court noted the governments intention to share data from the survey with the leaders of different parties in the state assemblyThere definitely arises the larger question of the right to privacy which the Supreme Court has held to be a facet of right to life it saidThe first round of caste survey in Bihar was conducted between January 7 and 21 The second round started on April 15 and was supposed to continue till May 15The petitions before the high court was filed by a social outfit and some individuals who had last month moved the Supreme Court after their request for an interim relief in the form of a stay on the survey was turned downThe apex court refused to interfere as well and referred them back to the high court with directions that their petition be decided expeditiouslyChief Minister Nitish Kumar has maintained that the state is not conducting a caste census but only collecting information related to peoples economic status and their caste so that specific steps could be taken by the government to serve them betterThis 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