Bihar Caste Survey: The Nitish Kumar government has been accused of violating people’s fundamental right to privacy by compelling them to reveal their caste, but the Supreme Court dismissed these charges on Friday by refusing to block the uploading of data gathered in the recently completed Bihar caste-based survey.
“How is the right to privacy affected when somebody is asked to give his caste or sub caste? That individual data is not released to the public… What is released is the cumulative figures,” Justice Sanjiv Khanna observed.
Bihar Caste Survey: Compulsions
People could not be “compelled to reveal their caste,” according to senior lawyer C.S. Vaidyanathan, who spoke against the poll on behalf of the NGO Youth for Equality.
“Your caste is known to your neighbours…. Which of the 17 questions asked in the survey amounts to a violation of privacy,” Justice Khanna questioned.
Vaidyanathan said that there were questions related to religion, caste and personal income. “Only thing voluntary is your Aadhaar information,” he said.
Questioning the element of compulsion, Justice Khanna said, “There is no penalty involved if a person chooses not to fill this up,” the judge pointed out.
‘Statutory backing needed’
According to Mr. Vaidyanathan, the survey was conducted based only on an executive order that was issued on June 6, 2022. He claimed that any action that violates a basic right—in this case, privacy—should be supported by law.
“A fundamental right cannot be infringed upon on the basis of an administrative order,” he said. The petitions against the survey, according to senior attorney Shyam Divan representing the Bihar government, were “completely motivated,” he claimed, noting that the survey was finished on August 6.
“This is a social survey. The information got from the exercise would be analysed,” Mr. Divan said, adding that the information gathered from the poll would be used to adapt the State’s welfare policies. He told the court that personal information would be safeguarded.
No stay till prima facie is convinced there is need
Aparajita a senior advocate, urged the Bench to stay the uploading of the survey data for a petitioner, .
“We will not stay anything till we are prima facie convinced there is a need for that… The State has already a High Court judgment in its favour. The exercise is complete. The data will be available in public,” Justice Khanna responded.
On August 1, the Patna High Court had upheld the legality of the survey.
‘Census powers with Centre’
According to the petitioners, Bihar lacked the authority to carry out such a survey, which was an attempt to usurp the authority of the Centre. “Only the Union has the authority to conduct census in India. The State government has no authority to decide and notify the conduct of caste-based survey in Bihar. The notification is null and void,” the petitioners said.
They argued that Schedule VII of the Constitution, the Census Act of 1948, and the Census Rules of 1990 had all been violated by the survey. The petitioners emphasised that Entry 69 in the Union List of the Seventh Schedule of the Constitution contained a reference to the census. They contended in their arguments that the survey notification for June 2022 was supra vires, or outside the purview of, Sections 3, 4, and 4A of the Census Act of 1948 and Rules 3, 4, and 6A of the Census Rules of 1990.
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