Supreme Court Upholds Bihar Government’s Caste Survey, Rejects Plea Against Publication

The Supreme Court has dismissed a plea seeking to halt the Bihar government from releasing further details of the caste survey, emphasizing that it is inappropriate to obstruct state policy decisions. The court has postponed the hearing on petitions challenging the constitutionality of Bihar’s caste-based survey until January of the following year. Justices Sanjeev Khanna and S V N Bhatti clarified verbally that they lack the authority to interfere in government decisions.

The Bihar government had already disclosed the survey results, indicating that 36% of the state’s population belongs to very backward classes, 27.1% to backward classes, 19.7% to scheduled castes, and 1.7% to scheduled tribes. Although petitioners argued against the collection of caste data, citing privacy concerns based on the K S Puttaswamy judgment, the court found no ban on the publication of census data. The court has sent notices to the state government on these petitions and scheduled a comprehensive hearing for January, noting that the census does not breach privacy since specific names and details are not disclosed.