SC to hear Bihar caste census matter on 6 October

The Supreme Court of India on Tuesday said it will hear a plea pertaining to the Bihar caste census on 6 October. The petitioner has challenged the Bihar government's caste survey, released on Monday, claiming it violated the apex court's judgement on privacy. 

Additional chief secretary of Bihar Vivek Kumar Singh on Monday said, “Backward class in Bihar is 27.13%. The extremely backward class is 36.01%, General category is 15.52%. The total population of Bihar is more than 13 crore.” 

The survey found Bihar’s population is overwhelmingly Hindu, with the majority community comprising 81.99% of the total population, followed by Muslims at 17.70%. 

“Unreserved" category, which denotes the proverbial “upper castes" comprise 15.52% of the total population," the data showed. 

Bihar CM Nitish Kumar noted that the proposal for caste-based enumeration was passed unanimously in the Legislature. 

“It was decided with the consent of all the 9 parties of Bihar Assembly that the state government will conduct caste-based census from its own resources and its approval was given from the Council of Ministers on 02-06-2022. On this basis, the state government has conducted caste-based census from its own resources."

He stated that the caste-based census not only revealed the castes but also gave information about the economic condition of everyone. The chief minister also stressed that further action will be taken for the development and upliftment of all sections.

The caste census that was opposed by the Bhartiya Janta Party (BJP)-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA)'s government, comes at a crucial juncture ahead of the 2024 Lok Sabha Elections, as it could spur demands for a similar caste-based census elsewhere is a key agenda of the opposition INDIA bloc.

The survey was initiated in the previous year following a decision by the Narendra Modi-led central government, which clarified its inability to include a caste-based population count for groups beyond the Scheduled Castes (SCs) and Scheduled Tribes (STs) in the national census.