The Supreme Court on Friday contemplated over the question whether the right to privacy under Article 21 of the Constitution would be affected by the caste-based survey undertaken by the State of Bihar since only cumulative data, and not personal data relating to each participant, was to be released by the state government.
The Bench of Justice Sanjiv Khanna and Justice S.V.N. Bhatti pondered over the question while hearing a petition filed by non-governmental organisations Youth for Equality and Ek Soch Ek Prayas against the Patna High Court verdict, which upheld the Bihar government’s caste-based survey.
The Bench noted that in Bihar, most people were aware of the caste of persons living in the neighbourhood, which might not be the case in a metropolitan city like Delhi.
Senior Advocate C.S. Vaidyanathan, representing the NGOs, argued that people could not be compelled to disclose details such as their religion, gender or monthly income without a law.
Talking about the form taken out by the Bihar government for the survey, the Senior Counsel said that the only thing voluntary (to submit) in the form was the Aadhar card.
He placed reliance on the Constitution Bench ruling in the Puttaswamy case, which held that individuals have a fundamental right to privacy and contended that privacy rights could only be infringed by way of a statutory law, which was fair and had a legitimate object.
He pointed out that no such law was enacted by the Bihar government before undertaking the survey.
The top court of the country made it clear on Friday that it would not stay the publication of the caste survey results unless a prima facie case was made out by the appellants.
Taking in view the Patna High Court verdict, which upheld the survey, besides the fact that the exercise has already been completed by the state government, the Apex Court refused to order any stay today and listed the matter for further hearing on August 21.
Senior Advocate Aparajita Singh is expected to make arguments for the appellant side on Monday.
(Case title: Youth for Equality vs the State of Bihar)