Census Duty Explained: Private Teachers, Article 23 and Limits on State Power

Complete enumeration: A census seeks information about every person or household within its defined coverage, unlike a sample survey, which studies a selected group. Population counts and demographic characteristics help plan schools, health services, housing and infrastructure.

Constitutional allocation: Census is Entry 69 of the Union List in the Seventh Schedule. Article 246 distributes legislative competence over the lists. The Census Act, 1948 supplies the statutory framework; the Census Rules, 1990 provide operational details.

Administrative arrangement: The Office of the Registrar General and Census Commissioner, India functions under the Ministry of Home Affairs. Under Section 4, the Centre appoints the Census Commissioner and Directors of Census Operations; State Governments appoint census officers for specified local areas. An enumerator collects household information, while a supervisor checks fieldwork.

Express categories: The amendment to Rule 3 names teachers in government, local-authority, aided and unaided private educational institutions, including institutions run by societies or trusts. It also names clerks and officials of governments, local authorities and establishments such as public sector undertakings, statutory bodies, banks and companies.

Residual category: A State Government or Union Territory administration may consider another person suitable for enumeration duties. The earlier wording already used broad categories, including teachers and other persons; the amendment makes the listed coverage more explicit.

Central distinction: Eligibility for appointment and lawful compulsion to serve are related but different questions. Listing a category in rules does not, by itself, resolve every dispute about the parent Act, the appointment order or an applicable court direction.

Appointment power: Section 4(2) authorises States to appoint persons as census officers for a specified local area and makes those duly appointed bound to serve. The breadth of this power is an important part of the government’s legal position.

Local-authority staff: Section 4A requires a local authority to provide necessary staff when directed by the Centre or an authority appointed by it. A private unaided school does not become a local authority merely because it performs an educational function.

Institution-specific duties: Section 6 permits written directions to specified persons in charge of institutions, establishments, vessels or premises concerning persons under their charge, present there or employed under them.

Assistance power: Section 7 allows written directions for assistance from specified landholders, local-authority personnel and establishment staff in counting persons within the relevant premises or areas. Assistance within an establishment must not automatically be equated with a general power to send all its employees on door-to-door duty elsewhere.

Government’s case: A large census needs trained field personnel; teachers have local knowledge and experience handling records. Authorities rely on the broad appointment language in Section 4 and the categories in Rule 3.

Petitioners’ case: Private staff are not generally under government service control. Petitioners question whether the Act authorises compulsory requisition of their services and whether the particular issuing authority has validly delegated powers.

Judicial position: In Unaided Schools’ Forum v. State of Maharashtra, the Bombay High Court’s order of 22 May 2026 granted interim protection to the petitioner institutions. Its preliminary reasoning distinguished limited assistance under Sections 6 and 7 from compulsory general deployment. The Punjab and Haryana High Court subsequently stayed specified Haryana communications seeking private unaided-school teachers’ details, as reported in October.

Scope of relief: An interim order protects parties or governs the directions covered by it while proceedings continue. It is not a final nationwide declaration that all private citizens are exempt. The amended rules should likewise not be presented as having conclusively settled the pending statutory questions.

Parent law and rules: Parliament makes the Census Act. Rules made under authority granted by that Act are delegated or subordinate legislation: detailed legal provisions made by the executive within the power Parliament has conferred.

Legal limit: A rule may explain how an Act operates but cannot create a power that the Act does not authorise. A rule exceeding that authority can be challenged as ultra vires, meaning beyond legal power.

Effect of amendment: Replacing the staffing description in Rule 3 is an amendment to the rules, not an amendment to the Census Act. Whether a particular compulsory appointment is valid depends on the statutory scheme and judicial interpretation, not only on the wording of the new list.

General protection: Article 23(1) prohibits trafficking, begar and similar forms of forced labour. Begar refers to labour exacted without payment under compulsion.

Public-service exception: Article 23(2) permits the State to impose compulsory service for public purposes. In doing so, it must not discriminate solely on grounds of religion, race, caste or class.

Constitutional permission and legal authority: This exception means that public service is not automatically unconstitutional merely because it is compulsory. It does not identify who can be requisitioned under the Census Act or cure an appointment beyond statutory authority. Equality under Article 14 and the validity and fairness of implementation remain relevant.

Statutory restriction: Section 27 of the Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education Act, 2009 generally prohibits deploying teachers for non-educational purposes. Its exceptions cover the decennial population census, disaster relief and elections to local authorities, State Legislatures or Parliament.

Important qualification: An exception to a prohibition is not necessarily an independent power to requisition every teacher. The Bombay High Court’s interim reasoning expressly made this distinction.

Educational interest: Article 21A protects free and compulsory education for children aged six to fourteen. Fieldwork schedules, examinations, teacher shortages and travel burdens therefore matter when assessing how otherwise lawful duties should be organised.

Separate duties: Answering authorised census questions and being appointed to collect information from other households arise under different provisions. Under Section 8, people must answer applicable census questions to the best of their knowledge or belief, subject to the statutory exceptions.

Confidentiality: Section 15 restricts inspection and evidentiary use of individual census records, with specified exceptions for census-related offences. This safeguards individual information while allowing statistical use.

Governance implication: Accurate enumeration depends on trained staff, secure handling of information and public trust. Digital collection can improve supervision, but does not remove the need for field visits, lawful staffing or confidentiality safeguards.