Overview
- The Ministry of Home Affairs published the Census (Amendment) Rules, 2026 in the official gazette on Friday, October 16, 2026, explicitly allowing teachers of government, local‑authority, aided and unaided private institutions to be appointed as census enumerators.
- The revised Rule 3 also names clerks and officials from central and state establishments and permits states or UTs to appoint “any person” they consider suitable, giving administrations broader hiring options for the population count.
- Courts have already intervened: the Punjab and Haryana High Court stayed two Haryana communications seeking teacher lists on October 8 and listed the Haryana Progressive Schools Conference petition for hearing on April 29, 2027, so the amendment does not end legal review.
- Officials say the change responds to a tight schedule and a manpower gap of about 34 lakh enumerators for the population‑enumeration phase, which is set for some poll‑bound states from December 1, 2026 to January 4, 2027 and for the rest of India in February 2027.
- The dispute turns on law and institutional autonomy: petitioners cite Section 4A of the Census Act and constitutional rights to argue private unaided school staff are not ‘local authority’ employees and cannot be requisitioned, while the Centre invoked Section 18(1) to notify the rule amendment.