The Supreme Court on Friday asked what was the harm if a person provided the details of caste or sub-caste during the Bihar caste survey when an individual’s data was not going to be published by the state.
The top court also said it is not going to stay something unless a prima facie case is made out as there is a judgment of the high court in favour of the state government.
“If someone gives the name of his caste or sub-caste, and if that data is not published, then what is the harm? What is being sought to be released is cumulative figures. How does that affect the right to privacy? What questions (in the questionnaire prepared for the survey) do you think are contrary to Article 21 (right to life and personal liberty) of the Constitution,” the apex court asked senior advocate CS Vaidyanathan, appearing for NGO ‘Youth for Equality’.
The NGO is among various petitioners that have challenged the Bihar government’s decision to conduct a caste survey.
At the outset, senior advocate Shyam Divan, appearing for the Bihar government, said the caste survey was completed on August 6 and the data gathered was uploaded by August 12.
Senior advocate Aprajita Singh, representing one of the petitioners, said they are aware that the exercise has been completed but would argue for a stay on the publication of the data.
On Friday, the bench of Justice Sanjiv Khanna and Justice SVN Bhatti commenced hearing a batch of pleas challenging the August 1 decision of the Patna High Court which refused to stay the caste survey.
