SC rejects plea against caste count in census

21 MAY 2026

The Supreme Court said there was nothing wrong in the government of the day ascertaining caste as part of the nationwide Census exercise.
“Any government of the day must know how many people are backward and how many need welfare. This is a matter of policy,” Chief Justice of India Surya Kant, heading a three-judge Bench, said.
The top court was responding to a plea filed by petitioner-in-person Sudhakar Gummula that caste enumeration should not be made part of Census 2027.
The Chief Justice said it was not within the court’s domain to decide whether a caste enumeration should necessarily be a part of Census 2027 or not.
Until the 2011 Census, the exercise had included the systematic enumeration of only Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes.
The government had said on the floor of Parliament about the incorporation of the caste enumeration in the second phase of Census 2027.
The first phase involved the collection of the House Listing Operation (HLO) information regarding housing conditions, assets, amenities and so on of each household.
‘Integration instrument’
The second phase, Population Enumeration, would involve the collection of demographic, socio-economic, cultural and other details.
The last comprehensive nationwide caste Census was conducted in colonial India in 1931.