Supreme Court to examine Bihar's authority to conduct caste census, but declines to block further publishing of data

The Supreme Court said it would look into the state's authority to carry out such an exercise but on Friday declined to block further publishing of data from the Bihar caste survey.

Justices Sanjiv Khanna and S.V.N. Bhatti's panel scheduled a follow-up hearing for the case in January 2024.

The opposition and the BJP are engaged in a political conflict over the caste census data that the Bihar government released on October 3, the first such survey by any state.

The Patna High Court's decision to maintain the state's decision to conduct a caste census was being challenged in separate appeals brought by the NGO Ek Soch Ek Prayas and another group.

According to Section 3 of the Census Act, the Centre had previously filed an affidavit declaring that only the Union government had the authority to conduct a census.

When the case came up for hearing on Friday, senior attorney Aprajita Singh, who was representing one of the NGOs, asked for a delay in implementing the census report because the Supreme Court was already concerned about it.

Additionally, Singh said that the disclosure of the data violated the decision made by a nine-judge panel in the Justice K.S. Puttaswamy case (Aadhaar card dispute), which established that a citizen had a basic right to privacy.

We are not suspending anything at the time, said Justice Khanna, who was presiding over the bench. We are powerless to prevent the state government, or any other government, from making a policy choice. That is not appropriate.

However, Justice Khanna stated that the court would look into a state's authority to carry out such an exercise. "However, we're going to look at the second problem relating to the state government's authority to carry out this exercise. The breakdown of the data and its public accessibility is the most important issue for the court to address.

The bench asked senior attorney Shyam Divan, who was representing the Bihar government, why the state administration made the data available to the public while the case was being reviewed by the court.

Divan emphasized that there was no embargo on the distribution of the material and that the matter hadn't yet progressed to the admission stage.

"This issue needs to be thought about. For us, it will take some time," the bench added.

Singh claimed that the release of the data entailed a violation of the privacy of the citizens, but Justice Khanna disagreed.

"We'll investigate every problem... Since names and identities had not been revealed, privacy might not be an issue, the bench said as it postponed the case until January 2024.

Two PILs contesting the constitutionality of the caste-based census carried out by the Bihar government were dismissed as "publicity interest litigation" on January 20 by a different panel of Justices B.R. Gavai and Vikram Nath.