The Supreme Court on Tuesday refused to restrain the Bihar Government from making further decisions based on the data of the caste-based survey, the results of which were revealed in October last year. The top court, however, questioned the extent of the breakup of data which exists in the public domain.
A bench comprising Justices Sanjeev Khanna and Dipankar Dutta was hearing a batch of petitions against the Patna High Court's decision to dismiss pleas challenging the state government conducting the caste-based survey.
The petitioners sought interim direction from the court and said the matter requires an urgent hearing as the Bihar state legislature passed a bill to increase the reservations for government jobs and educational institutions to 75 per cent.
However, Justice Khanna rejected the request and instead raised questions about the public accessibility of the break-up of the survey findings.
"I was concerned about, more than the survey report, is the breakdown of data, which is not normally made available to the public and that leads to a lot of problems. Once you are entitled to do a survey, but then to what extent can the government withhold the breakdown of data?" asked Justice Khanna.
Senior advocate Shyam Divan, appearing for the Bihar government, told the bench that the survey is available in the public domain.
Justice Khanna scheduled the next hearing for February 5 and added that the breakdown of data should be made available to the public. He stated that when people intend to challenge a specific inference, the corresponding data should be provided.
As per the caste-based survey conducted by the Bihar government, the Other Backward Classes (OBCs) comprise 63 per cent of the state's 13-crore population. Meanwhile, Scheduled Castes account for over 19 per cent of the state's population, while Scheduled Tribes make up 1.68 per cent. The upper castes, or 'savarnas', form 15.52 per cent of Bihar's population.
Accordingly, the Bihar legislature passed a bill which was advocated by Chief Minister Nitish Kumar to overhaul reservations for SCs, STs, OBCs, and Extremely Backward Classes (EBCs) so it increases to 65 per cent, surpassing the 50 per cent cap set by the Supreme Court.
With the additional 10 per cent quota for the Economically Weaker Sections (EWS) introduced by the Central government, the reservation in Bihar is set to reach 75 per cent.
