Reserve staff may take up census duty after HC order

Pune: Several districts, including Pune, Navi Mumbai and Nagpur, may now have to rely on reserve staff for the ongoing house-listing exercise for Census 2027 after Bombay high court’s vacation bench stayed the state govt’s move to deploy teachers and non-teaching staff from private unaided schools for compulsory census duties.

The stay order, especially during the school vacation period, could delay the census exercise and affect planning and policy decisions based on census data. However, they said the state would comply with the directions while preparing its response for the next hearing.

State officials said district administrations that had already involved private school employees in the process would have to draw from additional reserve staff to continue the exercise without disruption. “The house-listing process could face some difficulties, but we will manage with reserve staff,” a senior census official from Pune district administration told TOI.

The high court on Friday granted interim relief to over 500 private unaided schools across Maharashtra by staying requisition orders issued by the state govt for census work. A division bench of justices Gautam Ankhad and Sandesh Patil observed that the rules under the Census Act cited by the state could not be interpreted to authorise compulsory deployment of teachers and staff from private unaided schools.

The bench said Rule 5(5) of the Census Rules was not an independent source of substantive power permitting compulsory requisition of private school teachers for census duties.

“Section 4(2) of the Census Act read with Rule 3 of the Census Rules specifically authorises appointment of teachers, clerks and other officials as enumerators. We wonder why private school staff are being given an exemption,” an on-duty census official told TOI.

The HC issued notices to the state govt, director of census operations and charge officers across Mumbai, Navi Mumbai, Pune, Nagpur and Pimpri Chinchwad municipal corporations, seeking replies within four weeks.