SC: Can't restrain Bihar from releasing caste census data

The Supreme Court on Friday observed that it cannot restrain the Bihar government from publishing the cumulative data or findings of the Bihar caste survey unless there is a prima facie case to show violation of any constitutional right or lack of competence on the part of the state government.

- Utkarsh Anand

A bunch of petitions in the top court have challenged the August 1 judgment of the Patna high court that allowed the government to carry out the exercise which the Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar has pitched as essential and imperative to further the cause of social justice.

"We are not going to stay anything unless there is a prima facie case to show some violation... some legal issues that are debatable. The exercise has already been completed and the judgment of the high court has been in their favour," a bench of justices Sanjiv Khanna and SVN Bhatti remarked, as it took up a clutch of petitions challenging the HC's August 1 judgment.

As soon as the matter was taken up, senior counsel Aparajita Singh, appearing for one of the petitioners, requested the bench to stay the publication of the survey until the court decides the matter finally. "All the data has already been uploaded. We are requesting the court to stop the publication of the survey," she said.