Calcutta High Court blasts state over census duty for teachers after school, on weekends
Times of India | 15 August 2026
Kolkata: The Calcutta High Court on Friday questioned the assigning of census duties to govt school teachers after school hours or on weekends, calling it “arbitrary”.
More than 31 teachers were directed to give details of residence, school, area assigned for census and duty hour to the ASG by Friday evening.
“Teachers work from 10 am to 4 pm at school every day, and many of them travel from 40 km-60 km away. They get only one Sunday off. You will ask them to work on those Sundays for the census? So teachers don’t have work at home?” Justice Krishna Rao blasted the state, stressing that a “balance” needed to be struck between duty for census, teaching students and predicaments of teachers.
“Your authority issued orders on a bulk basis without considering. I know how the state has to work, not like this. If you are the state, you have the total biodata of the person, where he resides, where he is posted. At the time of transfer, what are you considering? Why not take this (distance) factor into consideration?” Justice Rao told the state’s counsel.
The single judge directed ASG Dhiraj Kumar Trivedi to get instructions on Aug 18. Multiple petitions, which clubbed various cases of govt teachers seeking relaxation from the state’s order of census duty, had approached the HC on Aug 7.
To solve the issue, Justice Rao suggested that if five-six teachers were taken for census duty from one school, other teachers could teach those subjects for a month, or duties for census could be ordered alternatively. “So many things can be adjusted,” Justice Rao told ASG.
The teachers’ appeal was that they travelled from places 40 km to 60 km away in districts to teach at govt schools in the city every day. If their school duty was from 10 am to 4 pm, they would have to conduct census duty after that, in a different area, as assigned to them or on Sundays, their only day-off. “If it takes an average of 1.5 hours to commute, they won’t be able to reach their homes even by 7 pm,” Justice Rao said.
The petitioners’ counsel cited examples from the 31 teachers who filed the case in a single petition. Pallabi Debnath Das (34) travels by train from North 24 Parganas’s Kankinara to Sealdah’s Taltala area, covering 34 km. She has been given census duty at Barabazar. “If she is to work on the census after school hours, is it possible?” the counsel submitted. Another teacher, Chandrima Mondal Porey (34), a resident of South 24-Parganas’ Nodakhali, travels 64 km to a school in Kolkata. She has been given census duty near the school.
When repeated assertions were made on “weekend duties” for teachers, Justice Rao said, “If you are saying on the weekends, then I am also taking approval from the Chief Justice. There are so many SIR matters—courts will sit on Saturdays and Sundays, lawyers will have to come.”
ASG Trivedi submitted, “There can always be a middle way. We are a welfare state—be it Union, and now I can vouch for the state. I will ask AG and we can come to an understanding.”