Centre amends Census rules to allow private-school teachers as enumerators

• Centre amends Census Rules to explicitly include teachers from aided and unaided private institutions.

• Change comes amid high court orders staying or challenging the requisition of private-school staff.

• Census 2027 will be conducted in two phases, with enumeration schedules varying across regions.

The Centre has amended the Census Rules, 1990, to explicitly allow states and Union Territories to appoint teachers from aided and unaided private institutions as enumerators for Census 2027, amid legal challenges to the deployment of such staff.

A gazette notification issued on Friday, 16 October by registrar-general of India Mrityunjay Kumar Narayan expands the categories of people who can be appointed as Census officers, specifying that teachers from government, local authority, aided and unaided private educational institutions, as well as societies and trusts, can be assigned enumeration duties.

The amendment comes against the backdrop of several high court orders granting relief to private-school teachers who challenged their deployment for Census work.

The notification also permits the appointment of clerks and officials from the Central and state governments, local authorities and a wide range of establishments, including public sector undertakings, statutory bodies, banks, companies, institutions, societies and trusts. State governments and Union territory administrations may also appoint any other person they consider suitable.

Punjab & Haryana High Court stays Haryana government communications

The latest legal challenge arose from a petition filed by the Haryana Progressive Schools Conference in the Punjab and Haryana High Court against the requisition and deployment of teaching staff from private unaided schools for Census duty.

On 8 October, Justice Harpreet Singh Brar stayed the operation of two Haryana government communications seeking details of teachers available for Census work. The matter has been listed for 29 April 2027.

The petitioner argued that neither the Census Act, 1948, nor the rules framed under it empowered the government to requisition teaching staff from private unaided schools for appointment as enumerators or supervisors.

The plea contended that Section 4A of the Census Act specifically provides for officers and staff of local authorities to be made available for Census-related work, while private unaided schools and their employees do not fall within the definition or scope of a local authority.

Allahabad High Court also stayed staff requisition

In May, the Allahabad High Court stayed orders issued by the district inspector of schools in Gautam Budh Nagar seeking lists of teaching and non-teaching staff from aided and unaided institutions for Census duty.

The court observed that staff of private institutions, whether aided or unaided, could not prima facie be considered part of the local authorities required to provide personnel for the exercise.

“The court prima facie finds that the teaching and non-teaching staff of private institutions, whether aided or unaided, cannot be said to fall within the purview of local authorities' i.e., the B.S.A., D.I.O.S., and the D.P.R.O., who alone are required to provide their staff,” it had said.

Bombay High Court bench ruled against deployment

The Nagpur Bench of the Bombay High Court had also heard a petition filed by teachers of Centre Point School challenging an order issued by the deputy commissioner of the Nagpur Municipal Corporation appointing them as enumerators and supervisors for Census work.

The deputy commissioner had allegedly threatened the school principal with criminal action if the order was not followed.

In May, the bench held that teachers and non-teaching staff of aided and unaided schools could not be deputed for election or Census duties, citing the consistent position taken by the Supreme Court and various high courts.

Census 2027 to be conducted in two phases

The 2027 Census, the eighth since Independence, will be conducted in two phases: house-listing and housing census, followed by population enumeration.

The decennial exercise, originally scheduled for 2021, was postponed because of the Covid-19 outbreak. The Union Cabinet has approved Rs 11,718 crore for the exercise, which is expected to be the largest population count conducted in the country.

Population enumeration in Goa, Uttar Pradesh and Punjab, as well as in areas of Uttarakhand outside its snow-bound regions, is scheduled to take place from 1 December 2026 to 4 January 2027 because of Assembly elections in these states next year.

The Centre has deferred house-listing operations for Census 2027 in Manipur, according to a notification issued by the Registrar General of India last month.

The exercise in Ladakh and the snow-bound, non-synchronous areas of Jammu and Kashmir, Himachal Pradesh and Uttarakhand took place from 1 to 30 September.

In the rest of the country, house-listing is expected to begin next February. The exercise will collect demographic, socio-cultural and economic data, along with information on migration and fertility characteristics of individuals in each household.

With PTI inputs