The Supreme Court on Wednesday (May 20, 2026) said there is 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 court was responding to a plea filed by petitioner-in-person Sudhakar Gummula that caste enumeration should not be made part of the Census 2027.

“There are endless possibilities of politicians and corporate entities misusing the caste data. There is no justification for gathering such a large tract of data on caste,” Mr. Gummula submitted.

The Chief Justice said it was not within the court’s domain to decide whether a caste enumeration should necessarily be a part or not of Census 2027.

“This issue exclusively comes within the policy domain,” the CJI said before the court dismissed the petition.

The Cabinet Committee on Political Affairs had decided to include caste enumeration in the Census 2027 in a meeting held in April last year. Since then, caste enumeration has emerged as a major feature of the Census 2027.

Until the 2011 Census, the exercise had only included the systematic enumeration of only Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes.

The government had informed on the floor of the Parliament about the incorporation of the caste enumeration in the second phase of Census 2027. The phase one involved the collection of the House Listing Operation (HLO) information regarding housing conditions, assets, amenities, etc, of each household.

The second phase, Population Enumeration, would involve the collection of demographic, socio-economic, cultural and other details.

Former Vice-President Jagdeep Dhankar had said that “thoughtfully collected caste data would be an instrument of integration, like an MRI of the body”.

The last comprehensive nationwide caste census in India was conducted in colonial India in 1931.