New Delhi, Oct. 16 -- The Centre has amended the Census Rules, 1990, allowing state governments and Union Territory administrations to appoint teachers from aided and unaided private institutions as enumerators for the 2027 Census, amid legal challenges to the deployment of such staff. A gazette notification issued on Friday by Registrar General of India Mrityunjay Kumar Narayan permits the appointment of teachers, clerks, government officials and other suitable individuals to carry out census duties.
According to the amended rules, enumerators can be appointed from educational institutions run by the government, local authorities, aided or unaided private bodies, societies and trusts. Clerks and officials working in central and state government departments, local authorities, public sector undertakings, statutory bodies, banks, companies and other institutions are also eligible. State governments and Union territory administrations may appoint any other person they consider suitable.
The amendment comes after several high courts granted relief to private school teachers who challenged orders requiring them to perform census-related work.
Recently, the Punjab and Haryana High Court stayed two communications issued by the Haryana government seeking details of teachers available for census duty. The order followed a petition by the Haryana Progressive Schools Conference challenging the requisition of teaching staff from private unaided schools. Justice Harpreet Singh Brar passed the interim order, and the matter has been listed for April 29, 2027.
The petitioner argued that neither the Census Act, 1948, nor the rules framed under it authorised the government to requisition staff from private unaided schools as enumerators or supervisors.
It also cited Section 4A of the Act, which provides for the deployment of officers and staff of local authorities, arguing that private unaided schools and their employees do not fall within that category.
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 work.
The court observed that staff members of private institutions could not prima facie be considered part of the local authorities required to provide personnel for the exercise. It referred to the roles of the Basic Shiksha Adhikari, District Inspector of Schools and District Panchayat Raj Officer in this context.
The Nagpur Bench of the Bombay High Court also heard a petition by teachers of Centre Point School challenging their appointment as enumerators and supervisors by the Deputy Commissioner of the Nagpur Municipal Corporation. The petition alleged that the school principal had been threatened with criminal action for not complying with the order.
In May, the bench said the Supreme Court and various high courts had consistently held that teachers and non-teaching staff of aided and unaided schools could not be deputed for election or census duties.
The 2027 Census, the eighth since Independence, will be conducted in two phases: house-listing and housing census, followed by population enumeration. Originally scheduled for 2021, the decennial exercise 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 country's largest headcount.
Population enumeration in Goa, Uttar Pradesh, Punjab and non-snow-bound areas of Uttarakhand is scheduled from December 1, 2026, to January 4, 2027, ahead of assembly elections in these states.
House-listing operations in Manipur have been deferred, while the exercise in Ladakh and snow-bound areas of Jammu and Kashmir, Himachal Pradesh and Uttarakhand was conducted from September 1 to 30.
In the rest of the country, house-listing is likely to begin in February 2027.
The census will collect demographic, socio-cultural and economic data, along with information on migration and fertility.
Published by HT Digital Content Services with permission from Millennium Post.