A Census Commissioner, Directors of Census Operations and records no court can read

Background

The Census Act of 1948 extends to the whole of India and lays down how a census is taken. The Central Government declares by notification in the Official Gazette that it intends to take a census in the whole country or any part of it, and the count then follows. It can appoint a Census Commissioner to supervise the exercise across the area being counted and Directors of Census Operations to supervise it within the several States, while the State Government appoints the census officers on the ground. The Census Commissioner, the Directors and every census officer are deemed public servants, and every local authority must spare staff for census duty when ordered. Anyone asked a question by a census officer is legally bound to answer it to the best of his knowledge or belief, but no person is bound to give the name of a female member of the household and no woman is bound to name her husband. Giving a false answer, refusing to answer, or refusing a census officer reasonable access to a house is an offence under the Act. Nobody can claim a right to inspect a book, register or record that a census officer has made, and no entry in one is admissible as evidence in any civil proceeding, or in a criminal proceeding other than a prosecution under the Act itself. That machinery is at work now: the Registrar General and Census Commissioner of India has asked the States to track the population enumeration phase of Census 2027 in real time, the first census taken with digital data collection, with about 34 lakh enumerators and blocks of roughly 700 to 800 people.