Bombay High Court stays census duty for private unaided school teachers

The Bombay High Court has restrained Maharashtra authorities from deploying teachers of private unaided and minority schools for the ongoing census [Unaided Schools Forum & Ors v. State of Maharashtra & Ors]..A Division Bench of Justices Gautam A Ankhad and Sandesh D Patil held that, prima facie, the teachers had no such obligation to carry out census duties under the Census Act or Rules.The Court, therefore, granted interim relief to various school associations who challenged the move, by restraining the authorities from compelling teachers from over 500 schools across the State to carry out census related work. .The Court also noted that the large‑scale requisitioning of teachers for census duties would disrupt regular academic activities and impair the right of students to uninterrupted education. “The material placed on record indicates that substantial teaching staff attached to several schools have been requisitioned for census duties. This will disrupt the regular academic activities and impair the right of students to uninterrupted education. Hence, interim protection cannot be denied,” the Court said. .It stayed notices and appointment orders that called on the teachers to attend to census duties as well as consequential coercive steps for those who did not follow such directives. The authorities have also been restrained from issuing fresh orders compelling these teachers to perform census duties, pending a final hearing of the matter on July 31, 2026.“The census exercise can always be undertaken through governmental machinery, local authorities or aided institutions, which the statutory framework itself contemplates. No irreparable prejudice would be caused to if interim protection is granted,” the Court added. .The interim order was passed on a writ petition filed by the Unaided Schools Forum, Independent English Schools, Private Unaided School Management and members of the International Schools Association. The associations represented over 500 private unaided and private unaided minority institutions in Maharashtra. They challenged notices, communications, appointment orders and actions by census authorities and municipal corporations compelling their teachers and staff to perform census duties..Representing the petitioners, Senior advocate Venkatesh Dhond argued that neither the Census Act nor the Rules impose any obligation on such private institutions to make their staff available for census duties. He pointed to material showing that in some schools, almost the entire faculty was deployed. For instance, at St. John’s School in Mumbai, all 133 teachers were appointed as census officers, while Chatrabhuj Narsee School in Pune had 111 of 144 teachers drafted. Such compulsory deployment, the petitioners said, gravely disrupts academic functioning and harms the students’ right to education.Government Pleader Anjali Helekar countered that the census was one of the largest administrative and statistical exercises requiring coordinated participation. She pointed out that teachers would receive an honorarium over and above their salaries, with most schools shut for summer vacation.Helekar invoked the Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education Act, 2009, which permitted the deployment of teachers for the decennial population census. Senior advocate Rajshekhar Govilkar, for the Director of Census Operations, cited the Census Rules, which provided that teachers, clerks or any official or any person may be appointed as enumerators. .The Court held that, prima facie, neither the provisions of the Census Act nor the Census Rules expressly cast any statutory obligation on associations of private unaided and minority schools to supply staff for census work.The issue of whether the State's move was justified in view of its power to delegate census duty assignment to authorities it deemed fit has been kept open to be decided at the time of the final hearing. .[Read Order]