The High Court of Karnataka.
The Union government on Wednesday told the High Court of Karnataka that the constitutional provisions envisages a single authoritative census [by the Central government] under the Census Act, while describing the ongoing Social and Educational survey undertaken by the State government as “census cloaked as survey”.This submission was made before a Division Bench comprising Chief Justice Vibhu Bakhru and Justice C.M. Joshi during the hearing on a batch of petitions, which have challenged the legality of the conduct of the survey to collect details of caste, religion, social and educational status of all citizens of Karnataka through the Karnataka State Commission for Backward Classes.Appearing for the Centre, Additional Solicitor-General of India Arvind Kamath said the Centre had already notified the Census, which also involved enumeration of castes, and the State government, through the present survey, had strayed into the domain of the Centre. Mr. Kamath also clarified to the court if the State government was conducting a survey, it had to be a issue-specific.As Commission’s advocate claimed that there was no compulsion for the people to disclose the information to the enumerators, the Bench asked under what authority the electricity meter readers were empowered to affix stickers and whether enumerators were clearly informing the people, prior to collecting information, that it was not mandatory for them to disclose the information.Meanwhile, the State government claimed that contemporaneous data was essential for framing and implementing welfare schemes while pointing out that the apex court, in its right to privacy issue on Aadhaar, had permitted the government to collect data for welfare purposes.Further hearing will continue on Thursday on the plea of the petitioner for staying the survey. Published - September 24, 2025 09:28 pm IST
