'Can't stop govt from taking decision': SC adjourns hearing on pleas challenging Bihar caste census

The Supreme Court, hearing a batch of petitions against the caste survey by the Bihar government, on Friday said that it cannot stop the state government or any government from taking a decision.

A bench of Justices Sanjiv Khanna and S.V.N. Bhatti also observed that the matter needs to be heard at length and adjourned the hearing until January next year.

It refused to pass any order of stay or status quo to restrain the Bihar government from acting on the data obtained from the caste survey.

"We cannot stop state government or any government from taking a decision," Justice Khanna remarked.

The bench was hearing pleas by NGOs Youth for Equality and Ek Soch Ek Prayas challenging the Patna High Court's August decision upholding the Bihar government's decision to undertake a caste-based survey.

Senior advocate Aparajita Singh representing the petition in the court raised the issue of data from the survey being published earlier this week and said the state government have preempted the court, even as the matter was sub-judice.

Singh further argued that the Bihar government's decision to seek caste details was contrary to the apex court's judgment in K.S. Puttaswamy case, which recognised the right to privacy as a facet of the fundamental right to life under Article 21 of the Constitution.

Saying that the state government has not yet shown any "legitimate purpose" for the survey, she requested the court to pass an interim order of status quo restraining the state from acting upon the survey data.

"This data may not be acted upon because it was collected unlawfully," Singh argued.

At this, Justice Khanna asked senior advocate Shyam Divan representing the state: "Why did you publish this?"

Divan said that the court had not passed any order against the publication of the data.

"This court indicated that first and foremost it will decide whether notice is to be issued," he said.

The bench then issued a formal notice to the Bihar government on the petitions challenging the constitutionality of the order.

While refusing to restrain the Bihar government from acting on the data obtained from the caste survey, Justice Khanna said: "Prima facie, you'll be on some difficulty with respect to that. We have read the judgment and formed a prima facie view, which is of course, subject to change.

"...We are going to examine the other issue regarding the power of the state government to conduct this exercise. We will look into other issues as well...privacy apart, because privacy may not be a concern since names and (other identifiers) are not being published. But, the other parts, we will examine."

Justice Khanna also said: "One of the issues will be with regard to the breakdown of the data and whether we should at all touch upon it"

As Singh asked, "Has the state government made an assurance that they will not publish the data?", Justice Khanna sternly replied that no such assurance had been made on either side.