PRAYAGRAJ, May 26 -- The Allahabad high court has observed that employees of aided and unaided private teaching institutions cannot be made liable for any task under the Census Act, 1948. With this observation, the high court stayed the order of the district inspector of schools (DIOS), Gautam Budh Nagar, by which he sought the list of all teaching and non-teaching staff working in all aided and unaided institutions for Census purposes. The court also asked the state government to file a counter-affidavit within four weeks. Justice Siddharth Nandan observed, "This 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, as also contemplated in the letter dated 01.04.2026." "Further, in view of the list forwarded by the B.S.A. to the Charge Officer pursuant to his letter dated 08.04.2026, the employees of aided and unaided institutions cannot be made liable for any task under the Census Act, 1948," the court added. The court was hearing a petition filed by 'Independent Self Financed Schools Association', which challenged an order of the DIOS directing the principal/management of all aided and unaided institutions to provide a list of all teaching and non-teaching staff for census duty. According to the petitioner, the staff of teaching institutions was not covered under 'Local Authority' under Section 4A of the Census Act, 1948, which provides that every local authority who has been so directed must provide staff for census duty. It was further argued that private institutions would not fall under the ambit of local authority, as they were neither controlled by the government nor were its subsidiaries. The court passed the order on May 21, which came into the limelight on Monday....