‘What’s the harm if person provides caste details’

New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Friday asked what was the harm if a person provided the details of caste or sub-caste during the Bihar caste survey when an individual’s data was not going to be published by the state.

A bench of Justices Sanjiv Khanna and SVN Bhatti today commenced hearing a batch of pleas challenging the August 1 decision of the Patna High Court which gave the go-ahead to the caste survey. Some of these petitions have claimed the exercise was an infringement of people’s right to privacy.

“If someone gives the name of his caste or sub-caste, and if that data is not published, then what is the harm. What is being sought to be released is cumulative figures. How does that affect the right to privacy? What questions (in the questionnaire prepared for the survey) do you think are contrary to Article 21 (right to life and personal liberty) of the Constitution,” the bench asked senior advocate CS Vaidyanathan, appearing for NGO ‘Youth for Equality’.

The NGO is among various petitioners that have challenged the Bihar government’s decision to conduct a caste survey.

At the outset, senior advocate Shyam Divan, appearing for the Bihar government, said the caste survey was completed on August 6 and the data gathered uploaded by August 12.

The bench told Divan it is not issuing notice on the petitions as then the question will arise about interim relief and the hearing will get pushed back to November or December.

Senior advocate Aprajita Singh, representing one of the petitioners, said they are aware that the exercise has been completed but would argue for a stay on the publication of the data.

The bench said it is not going to stay something unless a prima facie case is made out as there is a judgement of

the high court in favour of the state government.

“Whether you like it or not, the data has been uploaded,” the bench told the counsel.

The data, which has been collected during the survey, has been uploaded on the BIJAGA (Bihar Jaati Adharit Ganana) app.

The bench told Divan there are two things one that individual data will not be made public and two that the cumulative data will be shared with different departments for analysis.

Divan said that’s the point if individual data is not to be released, then where is the issue.

During the hearing, Justice Khanna said unfortunately in Bihar, normally the caste of an individual is known to neighbours although such a situation does not exist in a city like Delhi.

Vadiyanathan contended a constitution bench of this court had in 2017 ruled that the right to privacy cannot be infringed upon except under a fair, just and reasonable law with a legitimate aim.

“There is no law but an executive order (for caste survey) and no reasons have been given and communicated in that order....”