The Bihar government on Friday said it would bring in legislation to conduct a caste-based survey if needed, and expressed hope that the Supreme Court would allow the survey.

Patna High Court, while hearing a bunch of petitions, had stayed the caste-based survey on May 4 on the ground that it was a census in the garb of a survey and infringed on the rights of Parliament and the right to privacy.

The next hearing on the petitions is on July 3.

The Bihar government has moved the Supreme Court against the high court’s order.

"It is beyond our understanding why the caste-based survey, which was being done in public interest, has been stopped. We have full faith that the Supreme Court will see to it and allow us to complete this work,” state parliamentary affairs minister and Janata Dal United (JDU) leader Vijay Kumar Choudhary told reporters.

"If needed, we will bring a law to conduct the caste-based survey. The state government will take all steps to ensure the survey. Chief minister Nitish Kumar and the government want to get the survey conducted in any situation. All necessary legislative measures will be taken to get it done,” Choudhary, who also handles the finance and commercial taxes portfolios, said.

Choudhary's statements come at a time the state government is under attack from different sections of the society, including the Opposition BJP, over the manner in which the survey was initiated and the allegedly feeble arguments put forth before the high court.

Government sources said the state government was mulling a special session of the Bihar legislature to pass a law authorising a caste-based survey in case it did not get relief from the high court and the apex court.

Karnataka and Telangana have already conducted similar exercises while two surveys are currently underway in Odisha and Uttarakhand.

Around 80 per cent of the work of the survey in Bihar was complete when the high court stopped it. Altogether 214 castes were being counted in the state while a few minor castes have been clubbed together as "others". Their socio-economic and financial conditions are also being surveyed.

Political experts see the entire exercise as a masterstroke of Nitish to counter the BJP in Bihar by pitting caste identities against the planks of Hindutva and ultra-nationalism.