Politics · India Bureau
Supreme Court clears way for OBC caste dropdown in Census 2027
The Supreme Court has permitted the OBC Federation of India to petition the Registrar General for inclusion of a pre-loaded dropdown menu for caste categories in the upcoming Census 2027. The move comes as the petitioner argues that despite over ₹11,000 crore budgeted for the census, essential provisions for identifying Scheduled Castes and Other Backward Classes remain absent.
LSN India ·
India's Supreme Court has granted permission to the OBC Federation of India to approach the Registrar General with a formal request for incorporating a pre-loaded dropdown menu for caste categories in Census 2027. The development marks a significant moment in the ongoing discourse around data collection methodologies for the country's decennial census.
The petitioner's counsel emphasised that Article 342A of the Constitution specifically identifies Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes, and Other Backward Classes as distinct categories requiring constitutional recognition. Despite the substantial budgetary allocation exceeding ₹11,000 crore for Census 2027, the counsel argued that adequate digital infrastructure to streamline caste-related data collection has yet to be incorporated into the census design.
The dropdown menu proposal aims to standardise responses and reduce inconsistencies in how respondents report their caste status during enumeration. Such a mechanism could facilitate faster data processing and improved accuracy in recording socioeconomic information critical for policy formulation and resource allocation.
The Registrar General's office will now evaluate the formal petition and determine whether incorporating pre-loaded caste categories aligns with the census framework's objectives and technical feasibility. The decision carries implications for how India collects and analyses demographic data on backward communities in the upcoming census cycle.