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HC declines to stay Karnataka caste survey
Karnataka High Court allows the caste survey to continue, ensuring voluntary participation and strict data confidentiality amid legal challenges.
The Karnataka high court on Thursday declined to halt the state’s ongoing socio-economic and educational survey, also known as the caste survey, even as it directed that participation must remain voluntary and all collected data be kept strictly confidential.
A bench of chief justice Vibhu Bakhru and justice CM Joshi said they “do not find reason to interdict the ongoing survey”.
“We do not consider it apposite to interdict the process of survey. However, we direct that the data collected shall not be disclosed to any person. The State Backward Classes Commission shall ensure that the data collected is fully protected and kept confidential. We take on record the Commission’s submission that participation in this survey is voluntary and no person is obligated to disclose any of the information,” the court said.
The court passed the interim order while hearing a batch of petitions challenging the survey being conducted under the supervision of the Karnataka State Backward Classes Commission.
The petitioners, representatives of a private registered society, one Akhila Karnataka Brahmana Mahasabha, raised concerns over the use of personal information, including Aadhaar details.
They had claimed the caste-based survey was beyond the State’s jurisdiction and violated the Backward Classes Commission Act, 1995. The survey is a census in another name, the petitioners argued, adding that it was illegal since only the Centre has the power to conduct a census.
The Union government, too, had supported the petitioners and urged the court to declare the survey unconstitutional.
The Centre, through its counsel, additional solicitor general Arvind Kamath, had alleged that the Karnataka government’s exercise was “a census cloaked as a survey.”
Both the Union government and the petitioners had also asked the court to stay the state’s collection of data until the issue was finally decided.
The Court, however, allowed the survey to continue, directing the state government to ensure that no part of the data collected or the report on the survey was made public until further orders.
Enumerators must clarify to participants that the survey was voluntary, the court said, adding that enumerators must not “cajole or pressure” anyone who refused to provide information.
The state, through advocate general Shashi Kiran Shetty, assured the court that “robust safeguards” exist to protect the private data collected during the survey.
The court then directed the commission to submit an affidavit detailing the steps taken to ensure data protection. It will hear the final arguments on the petitions in December this year.
The state-wide caste survey began on September 22 this year, and the Karnataka government has maintained that such a survey is a “data-gathering” exercise for targeted welfare programs, and not a caste census.
Senior advocate Abhishek Manu Singhvi and AG Shetty had earlier argued the survey fell within the state’s jurisdiction. Singhvi had cited the Supreme Court’s 1992 judgment in the case of Indira Sawhney vs the Union of India, and the 105th Constitutional Amendment Act, 2021, saying that the judgment and the Amendment Act empowered states to identify and notify socially and educationally backward classes.
