In a major setback to the CM Nitish Kumar, Patna High Court on Thursday put an interim stay on the ongoing caste survey in Bihar. The high court stay came at a time when barely 11 days were left to complete the final phase of the survey in the state.

A division bench of chief justice K Vinod Chandran and Justice Madhuresh Kumar Prasad delivered the judgement in the post-lunch session on Thursday on PILs filed by ‘Youth for Equality’,  a civil society, of Akhilesh Kumar and Muskan Kumari.  The court has put an interim stay on the ongoing survey work with immediate effect terming it “unconstitutional”.

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The next hearing on this matter would be taken up on July 3.

One of the petitioners, Advocate Dinu Kumar, said that the court observed that the Bihar government cannot spend contingency funds, which is public money, on caste survey exercises.

The court said the money could be spent only under unforeseen circumstances. There is no provision in the constitution for any caste survey. Before initiating this exercise, the state government has also not made any statutes for this survey, he quoted the court as saying.

The court, however, asked the state government to preserve the data collected during the survey with a warning not to release it for the public at any cost.

The division bench after hearing the petitioners on Wednesday had said if it is found that Bihar government has either exceeded its powers to commission such a survey, not followed the due process, or if there was an infringement of privacy of the respondents, court will grant interim relief if there is a violation of any of these three issues.

The Bihar government had launched the much-awaited caste-cum economic survey on January 7. It has already spent Rs 115 crore in this whole exercise so far.

Soon after the court verdict, Deputy CM Tejashwi Prasad Yadav, talking to a select group of mediapersons, said, “We are yet to get the copy of the court orders. After going through the order, the government will be able to make any reply on this issue. Our government is committed to do it which is mainly in the interest of the common people. The findings of the survey would be beneficial for us in reducing the state’s poverty and backwardness.”

A total sum of Rs 500 crore was sanctioned for the survey from the Bihar Contingency Fund. The caste-based survey was a totally state sponsored project as the Centre has turned down a proposal for it. In August 2021, an all-party delegation headed by CM Nitish Kumar and the then leader of the Opposition Tejshwai Prasad Yadav (now deputy CM) met the PM Narendra Modi to press the demand for caste based survey.

The issue of caste-based survey has been a long pending demand of political parties in Bihar. The Bihar legislature had unanimously passed resolutions for the caste based survey twice, in 2019 and 2020. On both the occasions, BJP legislators voted in support of the survey.

During the survey, a total of 215 castes have been identified. More than two lakh government employees were engaged in this stupendous exercise.

Political analysts strongly feel that it would be a major blow for both Nitish Kumar and his deputy Tejashwi Prasad Yadav politically ahead of 2024 general election.  It was considered a major political card for the Mahagathbandhan for the upcoming general election, said a political observer. Now, the whole planning seems to be in the cold storage following the abrupt jerk in the ongoing survey work.

Former Union minister and the president of the newly-launched Rashtriya Lok Samata Party termed it unfortunate. He blamed it on “non seriousness” attitude of Nitish Kumar towards legal matters. He said the caste-based survey is essential for all round development of Bihar.