Supreme Court to hear plea against High Court okay to Bihar caste survey today

The Supreme Court is scheduled to hear on Monday a petition challenging the August 1 verdict of the Patna High Court which had upheld the validity of the caste survey in Bihar. The high court had rejected a batch of petitions challenging the survey, which was ordered last year and began earlier this year.

According to the cause list uploaded on the apex court website, a plea filed by NGO 'Ek Soch Ek Paryas' challenging the high court verdict is listed for hearing on August 7 before a bench of Justices Sanjiv Khanna and SVN Bhatti.

Besides the plea filed by the NGO, another petition has also been filed in the top court challenging the high court's August 1 verdict.


The plea filed by Nalanda resident Akhilesh Kumar has contended that notification issued by the state government for the exercise is against the constitutional mandate.

It has said that in terms of the constitutional mandate, only the Union government is empowered to conduct a census. "In the present case, the State of Bihar has sought to usurp the powers of Union of India, by merely publishing a notification in the official gazette.-PTI