The Supreme Court on Friday sought Bihar government’s reply on a batch of petitions challenging the caste-based survey in the state and refused to stay anything arising from the publication of the data from the survey that has now been made public.

Refusing to pass status quo order post publication of caste-based survey data, a bench of Justice Sanjiv Khanna and Justice SVN Bhatti said that restraining the State government from taking a policy decision would be wrong.

The bench also sought to know from the Bihar government why it published the data. The survey data relates to of all castes, sub-castes, their socioeconomic conditions, spread over an estimated population of 12.70 crore across 38 districts in Bihar.

Disagreeing with the petitioner that the caste-based survey was violative of the of right to privacy, the bench, however said that the important issue is breakdown of data which would be examined by the court including the power of the State government to carry out such an exercise.

The petitioners – Ek Soch Ek Prayas and Youth for Equality – have challenged August 1, Patna High Court order upholding the conduct of the caste survey by the Bihar Government. The petitioner organisations have questioned the legality of the exercise undertaken by the Bihar government. Besides these two organisations, there are individual challenges as well.

The Central government that too has joined the issue before the top court.

Reaffirming its commitment to uplift Scheduled Castes (SCs), Scheduled Tribes (STs), Socially and Educationally Backward Classes (SEBCs), and Other Backward Classes (OBCs) as per the constitutional provisions and applicable laws, the central government in its affidavit before the Supreme Court has stated that the Census Act, 1948, vests exclusive authority in it (the Centre) to carry out census related activities.

An advocate Tanya Shree appearing for a petitioner, Akhilesh Kumar said that Bihar government lacked the constitutional competence to initiate a caste-based survey and usurped the exclusive authority of the Union Government in conducting a census.