Another petition in SC against caste-based census in Bihar

The plea has been moved by Vishnu Gupta, National President of Hindu Sena.

Another petition has been moved in the Supreme Court by petitioner Hindu Sena challenging against Bihar Government's decision to conduct a caste-based census across the state. The plea has been moved by Vishnu Gupta, National President of Hindu Sena.

The petitioner has sought to quash the notification dated June 6 2022 issued by the Deputy Secretary, Government of Bihar, whereby the State Government of Bihar has notified its decision to conduct a caste-based census across the State of Bihar. The Petitioner said that the impugned notification and decision of the State of Bihar is unconstitutional, illegal, arbitrary, irrational, discriminatory, unreasonable and without any authority of law.

The petition mentioned about the Varna system, which according to the petitioner refers to the social stratification based on the Varna. Four basic categories are defined under this system - Brahmins (priests, teachers, intellectuals), Kshatriyas (warriors, kings, administrators), Vaishyas (agriculturalists, traders, farmers ) and Shudras (workers, labourers, artisans) and every Varna consisted of multiple Jatis. The petitioner blamed the Britishers and said that the British while ruling India needed to segregate the society for the purpose of smooth governance and in this regard, they invented this colonial construct of Caste.

"The British later on started classifying the different jatis in varna's from the decennial census from 1901. The birth-based varna system was never a part of India until the British segregated the society into castes for political and administrative purposes," the petition said and mentioned a portion of the Shrimad Bhagwat Geeta whereby it was stated that varnas are based on merit and Varna is based on one's karma or merit and abilities and not on one's birth. The early historic references also talk about a class-based and not caste-based society in ancient India, in the Vedic society too, there are clear references that the varna system was based on merit and not on birth, the petition said.

The Supreme Court is likely to hear the matter on Friday. Last Week the Supreme Court agreed to give an urgent hearing to the petition challenging Bihar Government's notification for conducting the Caste Census in the state. One of the petitions was moved in the top court recently by a social worker Akhilesh Kumar through Advocates Barun Kumar Sinha and Abhishek, who, in his petition, said, "That the cause of action arose on/from the impugned Notification dated 06.06.2022 issued by Deputy Secretary, Government of Bihar, whereby the decision of the Government to conduct caste census has been communicated to the media and public at large."

The petitioner Akhilesh Kumar through his advocates Barun Kumar Sinha and Abhishek had said that the decision of the State of Bihar is illegal, arbitrary, irrational, unconstitutional and without the authority of law. According to the petitioner's submission, there are more than 200 castes in Bihar, which are classified as General Category, OBC (Other Backward Class), EBC (Economically Backward Class), Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribes.

As per the plea, in the state of Bihar, there are 113 castes which are known as OBC and EBC, eight castes are included in the category of Upper Caste, there are about 22 sub-castes which are included in the Scheduled Caste category and there are about 29 Sub Castes which are included in the scheduled category. "The impugned Notification accords differential treatment without intelligible differentia to an illegal decision of State of Bihar is illegal, arbitrary irrational and unconstitutional," the petitioner Akhilesh Kumar said, urging the top court to issue a direction for quashing the impugned Notification dated June 6, 2022, and asked to direct the authority concerned to refrain from conducting the caste census as it is against the basic structure of the Constitution of India. (ANI)

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