The caste-based survey in Bihar was challenged in a number of court cases, and the Supreme Court gave the Union government one week to respond.

The central government has my support. There are consequences. I don’t identify with either side. I want to put my submissions on record,” Solicitor General Tushar Mehta said while speaking on behalf of the Centre before a bench that included Justices Sanjiv Khanna and S.V.N. Bhatti.

The court reaffirmed that it would not issue any temporary orders compelling the Bihar government to withhold the caste-based survey’s findings from public release.

The petitioners, who filed special leave applications against the Patna High Court’s ruling rejecting petitions challenging the caste-based survey in Bihar, were informed by the court that they would not be able to stop the survey unless a prima facie case was established.

The hearing on the collection of pleas has been postponed until August 28.

In particular, the caste-based census in Bihar has been finished and is shortly to be made public.

The petitioners had previously stated that the caste-based survey was being conducted in violation of the statute protecting privacy and that only the Union government had the right to conduct censuses in India.

According to the Supreme Court, the release of data won’t have an impact on people’s privacy because their personal information won’t be exposed, but the release of cumulative breakdowns or analyses of all the data will.

Even though it was argued that the pleas would become infructuous after the state government had given notice on August 1 to finish the remaining survey process within three days, the top court had repeatedly declined to impose any temporary order halting the process.

The Patna High Court’s ruling from August 1st, which dismissed the group of appeals, approved the state government led by Nitish Kumar’s decision to conduct the survey. On the day after the high court’s decision, the Bihar government resumed the procedure.

The survey, which began on January 7 of this year and was due to be finished by May 15, had already been ordered to be temporarily halted by the high court.

The high court later dismissed the group of appeals, saying, “We find the state’s action to be perfectly valid, initiated with due competence, and with the legitimate aim of providing ‘Development with Justice’.”

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