The Patna High Court on Thursday, 4 May, put an interim stay on the caste-based survey initiated by the Bihar state government.

The Bihar government had launched the exercise in January this year and had aimed at compiling data on each family in a two-phase process. However, several petitions had been filed in the high court challenging the caste survey.

Only a day ago on Wednesday, the high court had reserved its judgment in the case and the division bench of chief justice K Vinod Chandran and justice Madhuresh Prasad had noted that it would grant interim relief to the petitioners if it found that the state government had:

• either exceeded its powers to commission such a survey; 

• not followed the due process of law; or

• if there was an infringement of privacy of the respondents

“We will grant you interim relief if there is a violation of any of the three issues, otherwise we will allow them (the state government) to continue (with the exercise),” Justice Chandran had said.

This is a breaking news. Expect updates.