SC refuses to stay release of Bihar caste survey data
The Supreme Court on Friday refused to restrain the Bihar government from publishing further data from its caste survey in the state.
The court said, “We are not staying at this point…We cannot stop the state govt or any govt from taking a decision. That would be wrong.”
The apex court, however, added that it will consider any issue with regard to data of the caste-based survey. It gave four-week time to the state government to file a reply and adjourned the hearing till January 2024.
“Supreme Court has issued a notice to Bihar government and said that the (caste census) data should not have been published when the matter was pending. The court also said that it would not put a stay on anything as of now,” advocate Barun Sinha said.
According to Live Law, Justice Sanjiv Khanna said, “We cannot stop state govt or any govt from taking a decision. That would be wrong. But, if there’s an issue with regards to data, that will be considered. We are going to examine the other issue regarding the power of the state govt to conduct this exercise. ”
“We will examine other issues as well…privacy apart, because privacy may not be a concern since names and other identifiers are not being published. But, the other part, we will examine. The most important consideration will be with regard to breakdown of data,” he said.