Patna HC upholds caste survey

Patna: In a shot in the arm for the Nitish Kumar government in Bihar, the Patna High Court on Tuesday upheld the caste survey ordered by it as “perfectly valid” and “initiated with due competence”. A division bench comprising Chief Justice K Vinod Chandran and Justice Partha Sarathy passed the order rejecting a bunch of petitions challenging the survey, which was ordered last year and began earlier this year.

The bench, which had reserved its judgement on July 7, said in its 101-page-long verdict, “We find the action of the state to be perfectly valid, initiated with due competence, with the legitimate aim of providing development with justice.” The judgement began with the note: “The action of the state in carrying out a caste survey... and the vigorous challenge raised to it on multiple grounds... reveal that despite attempts to efface it from the social fabric, caste remains a reality, and refuses to be swept aside, wished away or brushed aside nor does it wither away or disperse into thin air.” The judgement, which came less than three months after the court had stayed the survey, shocked the petitioners who vowed to challenge the order before the Supreme Court.

“After studying the judgement, we will move the Supreme Court,” senior advocate Dinu Kumar, counsel for one of the many petitioners, told reporters soon after the bench pronounced its verdict in an open court.

The ruling ‘Mahagathbandhan’ (Grand Alliance) in the state, which had so far been content with a countrywide caste census being adopted as a key agenda by the opposition grouping INDIA, was predictably elated. Deputy Chief Minister Tejashwi Yadav took to Twitter to reiterate the promised benefits of the survey while taking potshots at the BJP, which rules the Centre, for being reluctant to order a caste census while proffering “false pride of having an OBC prime minister”. Statements hailing the judgement and chiding the BJP also came from the JD(U), to which Chief Minister Nitish Kumar belongs, and the CPI(ML) Liberation and the CPI(M), both of which are a part of the ruling coalition but support the government from outside. The BJP was left busy deflecting the blows, pointing out that it had “always supported” the caste survey, and backed it when the cabinet nod came for the exercise, while the party still shared power in the state.