Centre amends Census Rules to allow private school teachers, company staff as enumerators
A notification of 16 October amends the Census Rules, 1990, so states can appoint private-school teachers and others as enumerators, after several High Courts stayed such orders.
The Centre on Friday, 16 October 2026, amended the Census Rules, 1990, to allow states and Union Territories to appoint teachers of private institutions, among others, as enumerators for the 2027 Census. The Registrar General and Census Commissioner of India issued the notification in the Gazette, according to Business Standard, The Hindu and Hindustan Times. The Gazette text itself could not be accessed for this report; the wording below is as quoted by those outlets.
What the amendment says
The notification substitutes the entries for enumerators in Rule 3 of the Census Rules. Three categories can now be appointed:
- teachers of any educational institution of the government, a local authority, or “aided or unaided private bodies, societies or trusts”;
- clerks or officials of the Central or state governments, local authorities or establishments, including public-sector undertakings, statutory bodies, banks, companies, institutions, societies and trusts; and
- any person the state government or Union Territory administration considers suitable.
Hindustan Times reported that the earlier rules named “teachers, clerks or any official or any other person” without specifying them in this way. The Hindu described the change as the first time the Union government had broadened the category in this manner.
Court orders behind the change
Business Standard reported that the amendment comes after several High Courts gave relief to staff of aided and unaided private schools who had been asked to do Census work. It cited the Punjab and Haryana High Court, which stayed two Haryana government communications on a petition by the Haryana Progressive Schools Conference; the Allahabad High Court, which in May stayed orders of a district inspector of schools in Gautam Budh Nagar; and the Nagpur Bench of the Bombay High Court, which in May held that teachers of aided or unaided schools could not be deputed for Census work.
The Hindu reported that private teachers in Uttar Pradesh, Maharashtra and Haryana had gone to court during the first-phase house-listing operations. It also reported that the Bombay High Court had stayed notices, appointment orders and FIRs against staff of more than 500 private unaided and minority schools in Maharashtra.
The reports reviewed did not say whether any of those orders has been vacated or whether the amended rules will be challenged. No reaction from the petitioners to the notification was reported.
What happens next
The Hindu reported that population enumeration will run from 1 December 2026 to 4 January 2027 in Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Goa and Punjab, and in February 2027 in the rest of the country. Hindustan Times reported that the Census will collect demographic, socio-cultural and economic data, including on migration and fertility.
Perspectives
Listed in no particular order and given equal space. Inclusion is not endorsement.
The Centre's position, as reported
- A senior government official told The Hindu that about 34 lakh enumerators are required for the population enumeration phase and the work cannot be completed in time only with government-school teachers.
- A Census official told The Hindu that all data is centralised, with checks to ensure privacy, and that data is deleted from the enumerator’s device once the task is completed.
The petitioners' position, as reported
- In the Punjab and Haryana High Court, the Haryana Progressive Schools Conference argued that the government has no statutory authority under the Census Act, 1948, or its rules to requisition staff of private unaided schools, Business Standard reported.
- The petitioners said Section 4A of the Act covers staff of local authorities, and that private unaided schools fall outside that definition, according to the same report.