The climbdown comes close on the heels of the National Commission for Minority's action in seeking an explanation from the state government. Earlier, several Christian and Muslim organisations had condemned the surveys and Gujarat High Court had suo motu issued notice to the state government.

The high court's action was based on a news report headlined ``Gujarat Orders Census on Christians'', which appeared in The Asian Age on February 6. The report said that the state government issued a circular (document 2, Hindu/Christian/93/99) on this February 6 to all police commissioners and district superintendent of police (DSPs) asking them to collect details on the Christian community by February 15.

Justice M.R. Calla, while referring the case to a division bench, had observed that any survey, for whatever purpose, cannot be based on communal grounds, and there could be no classification of people on the basis of class, creed, or community.

It may be a routine exercise, but there can be no classification to identify criminals on communal basis, said Justice Calla. A criminal is a criminal; he has no caste or religion. Once our country has adopted the Constitution, we have to abide by it. No part of our Constitution permits classification on communal basis, Justice Calla said.

Interestingly, director-general of police, CID (intelligence), R.M. Bhattacharya, while confirming that the department had been asked ``not to act'' upon the circulars (which he calls fax messages), said that, in fact, a message had been sent out for collecting information about Hindus also, but the media never wrote about it.

The government had all along maintained that the circulars had been issued by the SIB on its own and the surveys were ``routine intelligence gathering exercises'', ordered to collect information for the protection of minorities after the murder of Graham Staines and his sons in Orissa.

Bhattacharya trotted out the same explanation on Wednesday, but did not say why the surveys had been discontinued and what impact it would have on the SIB's work. Additional chief secretary (home) V.V. Ramasubba Rao said the government had nothing to do with the withdrawal of the circulars, just as it had nothing to do with their issuance.

The United Christian Forum for Human Rights (Gujarat), which had demanded unconditional withdrawal of the circulars, welcomed the SIB decision. Forum co-ordinator Father Cedric Prakash expressed hope that the state government would ensure peace, protection and security for every citizen.