The Karnataka government on Tuesday told the high court that the Union government was “speaking in two voices” as it defended the ongoing caste survey that has drawn criticism from the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).
The state told the high court that while the Centre itself “piloted the 105th Constitutional Amendment Act, 2021” to restore the power of state governments to identify and list backward classes, it was now opposing the survey solely because Karnataka was under a different political dispensation.
“Having brought about this amendment, the Centre now conveniently supports the petitioners simply because a different political party is in power in the state,” senior advocate Abhishek Manu Singhvi, who appeared for the Karnataka government, told the court.
Singhvi reiterated before a bench of chief justice Vibhu Bakhru and justice CM Joshi that the exercise was not a “caste census” but a socio-economic and educational survey, well within the state’s legislative competence.
Citing the Supreme Court’s 1992 judgement in the case of Indra Sawhney vs Union of India, Singhvi argued that welfare measures under Articles 15(4) and 16(4) of the Constitution require fresh empirical data to avoid arbitrariness, and states cannot be denied the power to gather such information.
The senior counsel told the high court that Karnataka had conducted a similar survey in 2015, and both “common sense” and state laws “expressly mandated a review every ten years.”
“Any interference or stay at the interim stage will stall policymaking. It will strip the state of the very tools needed to frame rational, data-backed welfare schemes,” Singhvi said.
When the court asked the state to explain how citizens’ Aadhaar data would be used and what safeguards were in place for its protection, Singhvi said there was no invasion of privacy as the data collection was “voluntary and strictly for enumeration.” He added that “data mining pertains to private entities only,” and the state will not misuse or share the information, but will use it only for policymaking.
The state made the submissions while opposing a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) filed by representatives of a private registered society, Akhila Karnataka Brahmana Mahasabha, which sought to restrain the government from proceeding with the survey.
The PIL said the caste-based survey was beyond the state’s jurisdiction and violated the Backward Classes Commission Act, 1995. Earlier, additional solicitor General Aravind Kamath, who appeared for the Union government, told the Court the Centre supported the PIL petitioners’ contention that the survey was effectively a census and therefore should be declared illegal by the court.
The survey began on Monday. The court will continue hearing the matter on Wednesday.
The Supreme Court, in 2023, declined to restrain Bihar government from acting on or releasing more data based on the politically sensitive caste survey, observing that most policy decisions proceed on data and that a government, in an interim measure, cannot be stopped from taking decisions.
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