SC rejects pleas against Bihar govt’s decision to hold caste survey

New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Friday refused to entertain a batch of pleas challenging the Bihar government’s decision to conduct a caste survey in the state.A bench of Justices BR Gavai and Vikram Nath said there is no merit in the petitions and dismissed them with liberty to the petitioners to approach the high court concerned.
“So this is a publicity interest litigation. How can we issue directions on how much reservation should be granted to such and such caste. Sorry, we can’t issue such directions and can’t entertain these petitions”, the bench told the counsel for petitioners.
After briefly hearing the Counsels, he asked them to ‘go and file before the High Court’. The Bench dismissed all the petitions as withdrawn granting iberty to seek appropriate remedies in law.On 11th January, 2023, the matter was mentioned for urgent posting before the Chief Justice of India DY Chandrachud and he agreed to list the petition.
The petitions, essentially, seek to quash the State Government’s notification on the ground that the subject of the census falls in List 1 of the Seventh Schedule of the Constitution and only the Union Government is contemplated to conduct the census.
The petitions aver that as per the broad scheme of the Census Act 1948, only the central government has the power to make rules, appoint Census Staff, requisition premises for taking censuses, payment of compensation, power to obtain information, a delegation of functions of the Central Government regard to requisitioning, etc.