How Does Bihar Caste Survey Affect Right To Privacy, SC Asks Petitioners Opposing State Drive

The Supreme Court asked petitioners opposing the Bihar Caste Survey, how does the state government drive affect people's right to privacy if the individual data is not published.

File Photo of Supreme Court that heard on Friday pleas opposing the Bihar Caste survey that claim it would infringe on people’s right to privacy.

Source : PTI

The Supreme Court on Friday queried what harm could be caused if a person gave details of caste or sub-caste during the Bihar caste survey when anyone’s data was not going to be published by the state government. The question was posed as a bench of Justices Sanjiv Khanna and SVN Bhatti commenced hearing a batch of pleas challenging the August 1 decision of the Patna High Court that permitted the caste survey, news agency PTI reported.

Some of the pleas opposing the move have claimed the Caste survey would infringe on 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’, as quoted by PTI.

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

Senior advocate Shyam Divan, appearing for the Bihar government, informed the top court that the caste survey was completed on August 6 and the data gathered was uploaded by August 12.

The SC bench told the counsel that the court is not issuing notice on the petitions because, after it, the matter about interim relief will arise and the hearing will get pushed further to November or December.

Representing one of the petitioners, senior advocate Aprajita Singh said that they were aware of the exercise’s completion but would argue for a stay on the publication of the data.

The bench stated that it is not going to stay it unless a prima facie case is made out because 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, as quoted by PTI.

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

The bench pointed out that individual data will not be made public and that the cumulative data will be shared with different departments for analysis, according to PTI’s report.

During the hearing, Justice Sanjiv Khanna mentioned that in Bihar, unfortunately people usually know the caste of their neighbours, but such a situation does not exist in a city like Delhi.

Advicate Vadiyanathan highlighted that a constitution bench of the SC 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....What is infringed is Article 14 and 21 (right to equality before law and right to life and personal liberty) and a normal executive order will not suffice,” he contended, as quoted by the report.

The apex court stated that the notification for caste survey is not a quasi-judicial order to the government to state a reason.

“This is an administrative decision, where there may not be much detail for the public,” the bench mentioned.

To this, Vaidyanathan argued that mere notification cannot take the nature of statute or law as envisioned in the 2017 verdict in the KS Puttaswamy case, that dealt with the right to privacy.

“When Article 21 is sought to be invaded, it has to be supported by a statute not a notification. Please see the questions which were asked from the public in the survey,” Vaidyanathan told the bench, as per PTI.

The bench sought to know which questions he thought were contradicting Article 21 of the Constitution and infringed the right to privacy. The advocate responded by saying people have been asked about their gender, caste, income and answering all these questions were made mandatory. “Anything related to caste is a matter of privacy. All the 17 questions are made mandatory to be answered by the public and only the Aadhaar number is voluntary,” the senior lawyer stated.

He further stressed that the real question was if people be asked to reveal these details in the absence of a law.

The bench then mentioned that there was no penalty if the public does not provide the details sought by the state government.

As per the report, the apex court will hear the matter next on August 21.

Earlier this month, the SC on August 7 refused to stay the Patna High Court’s order permitting the Bihar Government’s caste survey.

In its 101-page verdict, the high court had said: “We find the action of the state to be perfectly valid, initiated with due competence with the legitimate aim of providing development with justice…”

Subscribe And Follow ABP Live On Telegram: https://t.me/officialabplive