Supreme Court says break-up of Bihar caste survey data ought to ‘normally’ be made available in public domain

Supreme Court judge Justice Khanna orders break-up of Bihar caste survey data to be made available in public domain to challenge inferences and policies.

Supreme Court judge, Justice Sanjiv Khanna, on January 2 said break-up of Bihar caste survey data should normally be made available in the public domain to aid those who want to challenge inferences and policies kick-started by the State government on the basis of the information.

Appearing before the Bench headed by Justice Khanna, senior advocate Raju Ramachandran, who represents the petitioner side led by the NGO Ek Soch Ek Prayas, said the Bihar government had already gone ahead and increased reservation from 50% to 70% in the State.

Mr. Ramachandran said he would submit the survey report and sought interim relief, including an interim relief injuncting the government from acting on the findings of the report.

“Things are moving apace. The matter is pending here since August. In the meantime, reservation has increased from 50% to 70%... We wish to argue for an interim relief,” Mr. Ramachandran submitted.

Senior advocate Shyam Divan, for Bihar, said the survey was available in the public domain and it had already been tabled in the State legislature.

“Huge data from the survey is available in the public domain,” Mr. Divan said.

Justice Khanna said there would be a problem if data from the survey was put out in the public domain selectively.