New Delhi: The Supreme Court of India dismissed a Public Interest Litigation on Wednesday that challenged the central government’s decision to include caste enumeration in the upcoming Census 2027. A three-judge Bench comprising Chief Justice of India Surya Kant, Justice Joymalya Bagchi, and Justice Vipul Pancholi ruled that determining the parameters of the national census falls strictly within the policy domain of the executive, meaning courts have no authority to intervene.
The petition, filed by Sudhakar Gummula who appeared as a petitioner-in-person, argued that collecting nationwide caste data lacked justification and carried a high risk of exploitation if accessed by politicians or corporate entities. Dismissing these concerns, Chief Justice Surya Kant emphasized the governance necessity of the exercise, stating that the government must have accurate data on backward classes to design and implement effective welfare measures. The Bench remained unmoved by the petitioner’s assertion that the state already possessed sufficient demographic data, reiterating that the structure of the population count remains an exclusive policy decision.
The Union Government notified the framework for Census 2027 in June 2025, exercising its statutory powers under Section 3 of the Census Act, 1948. Officially marking the 16th national census since the exercise began, Census 2027 will be historic as India’s first fully digital census and the first since 1931 to incorporate a comprehensive, nationwide caste enumeration beyond the standard counting of Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes.
The ruling marks the latest instance of the apex court protecting the census framework from judicial interference. Earlier this year on February 2, the Supreme Court refused to entertain a separate PIL brought by academician Aakash Goel regarding the recording, classification, and verification mechanisms of the caste data. In that instance, the court similarly upheld the statutory power of the Registrar General and Census Commissioner under the Census Rules but directed the relevant authorities to evaluate the technical suggestions submitted by the petitioner.
