diff --git a/doc/source/release.rst b/doc/source/release.rst
index d5163b9dbc60b..5ce9ccd25a7fc 100644
--- a/doc/source/release.rst
+++ b/doc/source/release.rst
@@ -550,6 +550,7 @@ Bug Fixes
       (:issue:`4708`)
     - Fixed decoding perf issue on pyt3 (:issue:`5441`)
     - Validate levels in a multi-index before storing (:issue:`5527`)
+    - Correctly handle ``data_columns`` with a Panel (:issue:`5717`)
   - Fixed bug in tslib.tz_convert(vals, tz1, tz2): it could raise IndexError
     exception while trying to access trans[pos + 1] (:issue:`4496`)
   - The ``by`` argument now works correctly with the ``layout`` argument
diff --git a/pandas/io/pytables.py b/pandas/io/pytables.py
index 09618b77a2968..bc99417c67310 100644
--- a/pandas/io/pytables.py
+++ b/pandas/io/pytables.py
@@ -3446,6 +3446,8 @@ def read(self, where=None, columns=None, **kwargs):
 
                 # the data need to be sorted
                 sorted_values = c.take_data().take(sorter, axis=0)
+                if sorted_values.ndim == 1:
+                    sorted_values = sorted_values.reshape(sorted_values.shape[0],1)
 
                 take_labels = [l.take(sorter) for l in labels]
                 items = Index(c.values)
diff --git a/pandas/io/tests/test_pytables.py b/pandas/io/tests/test_pytables.py
index e9c04932aba40..c9955b1ae2fb2 100644
--- a/pandas/io/tests/test_pytables.py
+++ b/pandas/io/tests/test_pytables.py
@@ -1350,6 +1350,29 @@ def check_col(key,name,size):
             expected = df_dc[(df_dc.B > 0) & (df_dc.C > 0) & (df_dc.string == 'foo')]
             tm.assert_frame_equal(result,expected)
 
+        with ensure_clean_store(self.path) as store:
+            # panel
+            # GH5717 not handling data_columns
+            np.random.seed(1234)
+            p = tm.makePanel()
+
+            store.append('p1',p)
+            tm.assert_panel_equal(store.select('p1'),p)
+
+            store.append('p2',p,data_columns=True)
+            tm.assert_panel_equal(store.select('p2'),p)
+
+            result = store.select('p2',where='ItemA>0')
+            expected = p.to_frame()
+            expected = expected[expected['ItemA']>0]
+            tm.assert_frame_equal(result.to_frame(),expected)
+
+            result = store.select('p2',where='ItemA>0 & minor_axis=["A","B"]')
+            expected = p.to_frame()
+            expected = expected[expected['ItemA']>0]
+            expected = expected[expected.reset_index(level=['major']).index.isin(['A','B'])]
+            tm.assert_frame_equal(result.to_frame(),expected)
+
     def test_create_table_index(self):
 
         with ensure_clean_store(self.path) as store: