India, Sept. 25 -- The Karnataka high court on Thursday declined pleas to interfere with the socio-economic survey, popularly known as the caste survey, conducted by the state government.

However, the court ordered the authorities not to disclose any data obtained from participants in the process and to notify participants that their participation was voluntary."In view of the above, we do not find to interdict the ongoing survey. However, we state that data collected shall not be disclosed to any person. The Commission shall ensure that data is fully protected and kept confidential. We further direct the Commission to issue a public notification that clarifying in this survey is voluntary and no person is obligated to disclose any infor...