Teachers must perform census duty but won’t have to work after school: HC
Times of India | 22 August 2026
Kolkata: Calcutta High Court on Friday held that teachers do not have to work beyond school hours for census duty but those deputed for census duty cannot deny performing the work assigned to them and will be treated as “on-duty”.
The judgment came in the backdrop of the Bengal govt informing the court that it has issued a notification on Aug 19 revoking its earlier order that teachers have to perform census work after their 9 am-4 pm school schedule and on weekends. The Bengal govt also informed the HC that school teaching will not be disrupted due to this.
Justice Krishna Rao also told the director of census operations and the charge officer to specify the date, time and place of census work to be executed by the teachers to school heads. The heads will make necessary arrangements to allow the teachers to go for census duty. They will make alternative arrangements with available teachers so that students’ education is not affected.
The census work is to be completed by Sept 14. “The Census is required to be done for national interest, nobody can avoid such type of work irrespective of their imparting education, particularly if they are receiving salary from the public exchequer. This court wanted to strike a balance between two contingencies, i.e., one is imparting education and another is with regard to assistance in the census work by the teachers,” Justice Rao held.
It was further observed that the state govt’s intention was that while teachers are deployed for census duty, the academic interests of the school students are not affected.