SC Refuses To Restrain Bihar Govt From Publishing Caste Census Data

NEW DELHI:
The Supreme Court on Friday refused to restrain Bihar government from publishing further data from its caste survey.

The Apex Court Bench headed by Justice Sanjiv Khanna said: “We cannot stop state government from taking any policy decision,”.

The Court has issued notices on pleas challenging August 1 Patna High Court order that gave the go-ahead to Bihar caste survey.

The Court has listed matter in January 2024.

Earlier, the SC had said it will hear petitions challenging the legality of the caste-based survey held in Bihar on October 6.

The Bench headed by Justice Khanna had informed Solicitor-General Tushar Mehta, who is appearing for the Union Government in the case that the case has been listed for hearing.

The Union Government had maintained that only the Centre and “no other body” was entitled to conduct “either census or any action akin to census” in its reply to the Supreme Court on the Bihar Government’s caste-based survey.

“Census is a statutory process and is governed by the Census Act, 1948. The subject of census is covered in the Union List under Entry 69 in the Seventh Schedule of the Constitution,” the Office of the Registrar General, Home Ministry, said in a two-page affidavit.

The affidavit said the Centre is “committed to take all affirmative actions for the upliftment of SCs/STs/SEBCs and OBCs in accordance with the Constitution and the applicable law”. The Ministry said the affidavit was only meant to state the position in law before the top court.

Earlier, the Supreme Court had refused to stay the uploading of data collected in the recently concluded Bihar caste-based survey while debunking claims that the Nitish Kumar Government had violated the fundamental right to privacy by compelling people to reveal their caste.

Months ahead of the Lok Sabha elections, the survey revealed that the Other Backward Classes and the Extremely Backward Classes between them constituted 63% of the State’s population, of which the EBCs constituted 36% while the OBCs stood at 27.13%.

The Bihar Government had argued that the exercise was a “social survey”.