State moves apex court over stay on caste survey

Patna: A week after the Patna high court clamped an interim stay on the caste survey in the state, the government on Thursday filed a special leave petition (SLP) in the Supreme Court, challenging the interim order.The state government has also challenged another May 9 order of Patna high court, where the state's plea for early hearing of all PILs was rejected.Filing of the SLP was confirmed by advocate general of Bihar P K Shahi, who reportedly left for New Delhi on Thursday evening.Sources said the SLP is likely to be mentioned for urgent hearing before the apex court goes for summer vacation.On May 4, a division bench of chief justice K Vinod Chandran and Justice Madhuresh Prasad, while hearing PILs filed by a civic forum namely ‘Youth for Society’ and other four petitioners, had imposed immediate stay on the caste-based survey being conducted by state government with further direction to keep the survey data, collected so far, intact and unshared.