Supreme Court Refuses PIL To Exclude Caste Enumeration From Census

The Supreme Court refused to entertain a public interest litigation (PIL) seeking exclusion of caste enumeration in population census A bench comprising Chief Justice of India Surya Kant, Justice Joymalya Bagchi and Justice Vipul Pancholi has said that the issue lies within the policy domain of the government.

"Whether census should be caste or not caste based is a policy decision. Government has to know how many are backward class etc," the CJI remarked.

"This is policy matter. No reason to intervene. Dismissed," the bench went on to order.

The Supreme Court has been hearing petitions pertaining to the 2027 caste census. The 2027 Census, officially the 16th national census, is significant as it will be India’s first fully digital census and the first comprehensive caste enumeration exercise since 1931.

Recently, Court had dismissed a PIL seeking to stop the caste Census and slammed the petitioner for language used in the plea. "Aapne petition me badtameezi ki bhasha likhi hai. Aapne kisse apna petition likhwaya hai," a miffed CJI Surya Kant had asked the petitioner before him. "Aap kahan se aisi bhasha likhte ho petition mei,"the CJI went on to lambast the petitioner.

Earlier, Court had also refused to entertain a public interest litigation challenging the procedure proposed to be adopted for recording, classifying and verifying caste data in the upcoming 2027 Census, even as it asked the Centre and the office of the Registrar General and Census Commissioner of India to consider the suggestions made by the petitioner.

The PIL was filed by academician Aakash Goel, who sought directions to the Union government to place in the public domain a transparent questionnaire explaining how caste details of citizens would be recorded, classified and verified during the census exercise.

The bench of Chief Justice of India Surya Kant and Justice Joymalya Bagchi had noted the petitioner’s concern that there was “no pre-determined data” disclosed to identify caste data, but declined to issue any directions interfering with the census process.

“The census exercise is regulated under the Census Act, 1948 and the Census Rules, 1990 framed thereunder, which empower the respondent authorities to determine the particulars and the manner of census operations,” the Bench observed. The court said it had no reason to doubt that the respondent authorities, with the aid and assistance of domain experts, had evolved a robust mechanism to rule out errors as apprehended by the petitioner and other like-minded persons.

“We find that the petitioner has raised some relevant issues through representations addressed to the Registrar General of Census Operations and the Director General as well,” the Chief Justice noted. In view of this, the bench disposed of the PIL, requesting the competent authorities to consider the suggestions raised in the legal notice and the petition, without expressing any opinion on the merits of the census methodology.

Case Title: Sudhakar Gummula vs. Union of India

Bench: CJI Kant, Justices Bagchi and Pancholi

Hearing Date: May 20, 2026