India, May 23 -- The Bombay High Court on Friday granted interim relief to over 500 private unaided and minority schools across Maharashtra, staying notices and appointment orders issued by the state government to compulsorily deploy its teachers for Census 2027 duties.

A vacation bench of justices Gautam A Ankhad and Sandesh D Patil held that teachers employed in unaided educational institutions cannot be deputed for census duties, as provisions of the Census Act do not apply to them.

Representatives of private unaided and minority schools, including The Unaided Schools Forum, had filed a petition challenging the government's deployment notice, issued under the provisions of the Census Act, 1948, and the Census Rules, 1990. The petitio...