New Delhi, Aug 18: The Supreme Court on Friday refused to pass any interim direction requiring the Bihar government to abstain from publishing the results of the caste-based survey.
“We will not stay anything, unless there is a strong prima facie case,” told a bench comprising Justices Sanjiv Khanna and S V N Bhatti to the petitioners, who had filed special leave petitions against the Patna High Court’s order dismissing pleas challenging the caste-based survey in Bihar.
Notably, the caste-based survey in Bihar has been completed and its results are expected to be out soon in the public domain. Senior advocate C S Vaidyanathan, arguing for petitioners, said that no law was passed by the state legislature to initiate the survey and the process commenced after an executive notification was issued by the state government, thus violating privacy. “Right to privacy cannot be infringed upon except for under a fair, just, and reasonable law with legitimate aim. It cannot be done through an executive order,” he argued.
At this, the bench said: “This is not a quasi-judicial order but an administrative order. There is no need to communicate reasons.”
It further said that publication of data will not affect individual’s privacy as data of individuals will not come up, but cumulative breakup or analysis of the entire data will be published. (IANS)
