NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court on Friday declined to order status quo on the Bihar government's decision to collect and publish contentious caste census data.
As the Bihar government already published the data on October 2, a bench of Justices Sanjiv Khanna and S V N Bhatti said there can't be a status quo order for now as restraining the state government from taking a policy decision would be wrong.
"We cannot stop the state government or any government from taking a decision,” the bench orally observed
The bench, however, asked the state government as to why it published the data.
Responding to the query, senior advocate Shyam Divan on behalf of the Bihar government submitted that the court never passed any order against the publication of the date and this court had indicated that it will first and foremost decide whether notice is to be issued.
The bench then said, "We are going to examine the right of State to collect the data and all other issues."
The court issued notice to the state government on a batch of petitions challenging the Patna High Court's decision which upheld the state government's decision to conduct the caste census.
The court scheduled the matter for hearing in January, 2024.
It sought a response from the state government within four weeks on the petition filed by NGO 'Ek Soch Ek Prayas' and others. It also gave four weeks time for the petitioners to file rejoinder thereafter.
Senior advocate Aparajita Singh, appearing for the petitioners, contended the state government has published the caste census and preempted this court from examining the validity of the matter, despite previous assurance against it.
The bench, however, said there was no such assurance from the state government.
The petitioners then sought a status quo and a direction to the state government restraining it from acting on the data. They said that the state's decision to collect caste details was contrary to the Supreme Court's judgement in the K S Puttaswamy, which recognised the right to privacy as a fundamental right.
The bench, however, declined it. It also rejected the arguments with regard to privacy.
"Normally, all policies depend and based on data. We will hear you out. The High Court judgement is fairly detailed," the bench told the petitioners.
The bench said it would consider as to how much breakdown of data could be made available to the general public as it involved the question of transparency or whether the court should examine this issue.
The Patna High Court had on August 1 approved the Bihar government's decision of June 6, 2022 to conduct a caste census in the state. The HC had said the exercise was perfectly valid, and (is) initiated with due competence, with the legitimate aim of providing ‘development with justice’; as proclaimed in the address to both Houses.
On October 2, 2023, the Bihar government went on to publish the data on caste census.
The petitioners claimed the entire exercise of collecting caste data was without authority, and legislative competence and reeked of mala fide. The petitioners said in terms of constitutional mandate, only the Union Government is empowered to conduct census.
The Ministry of Home Affairs, in an affidavit, said 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. In exercise of the powers under the said Entry, the central government has made the Census Act, 1948. The said Act empowers only the central government to conduct the census under section 3 of the Census Act, 1948," it had said.
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