The Centre also questioned the purpose of the survey if it is not mandatory for citizens to answer the questions.
Published Sep 25, 2025 | 2:17 PM ⚊ Updated Sep 25, 2025 | 2:17 PM
The Karnataka High Court. (Creative Commons)
Synopsis: The High Court of Karnataka questioned the Karnataka State Backward Commission why it is collecting Aadhaar numbers of citizens, and the basis or material that is relied upon to make the number of castes and classifications in the list.
The Union government has said that Karnataka’s socio-economic and educational survey is a “census cloaked as a survey”.
“In pith and substance, having regard to its universality, it is a census cloaked as a survey,” Additional Solicitor General Arvind Kamath submitted before the Karnataka High Court on Wednesday, 24 September.
Kamath was questioning the purpose of the survey if the state felt it was not mandatory.
While hearing a batch of petitions challenging the government’s approval to survey under the supervision of the Karnataka State Backward Commission, a Bench of Chief Justice Vibhu Bakhru and Justice CM Joshi enquired the government body if it had informed the enumerators and the citizens that participation in the survey was not mandatory.
Appearing for the state government, Senior Advocate Abhishek Manu Singhvi argued that the objections raised by petitioners were general allegations of the survey being ‘unscientific’, which could only be verified once results were made public.
“Where is it in the handbook that at the outset every person who goes to the houses says that they (people) have no obligation to answer, and there is no requirement to give your Aadhaar…Enumerator must tell them that we are doing this survey, and if you don’t want to give, we will go away,” the high court asked.
“On the contrary, your instructions are to visit them again and again, and if they (people) still don’t give it to you for any reason, please tell your supervisor who will obviously do something else,” the Bench noted.
“If people say they don’t want to answer a question, there is nothing in the statute which says ‘I will paint you black’. Puttaswamy (judgement) recognises the state’s collection of data is permissible subject to safeguards,” Singhvi said.
The court also posed several questions to the Karnataka State Commission for Backward Classes, including the basis or material that was relied upon to make the number of castes and classifications in the list.
“We have not invented any caste. We have collected all the available disclosures made in the survey conducted in the past…This is not for public consumption. We go and ask a respondent, what is your caste, and they disclose the caste. We don’t suggest anybody give a caste name,” the counsel for the commission responded, according to LiveLaw.
The counsel further submitted that electricity meter readers have been permitted to conduct the survey. He added that Aadhaar numbers of the respondents would be taken for identification purposes.
To a specific question on taking the Aadhaar number, the counsel replied that it was to avoid duplication and prevent infiltration from other states.
The counsel also submitted that a citizen could refuse to divulge the information, and the enumerators have been instructed to take answers as they come and not to pose any leading questions.
The court would take the matter for further hearing on Thursday, 25 September.
