Supreme Court Greenlights 2027 Caste Census, Dismisses Single-Child Policy Plea

April 10, 2026 : The Supreme Court of India today dismissed a petition seeking to stop the upcoming caste-based enumeration and declined to direct the Centre to formulate economic incentives for single-child families. The bench, comprising Chief Justice Surya Kant and Justices Joymalya Bagchi and Vipul M. Pancholi, issued the ruling as the country prepares for its most significant demographic exercise in decades.

This judgment reinforces the Court’s stance from February 2nd, when it refused to entertain a separate legal challenge regarding the recording and verification procedures of caste data. The 2027 Census will be a historic landmark as the 16th national census and the first since 1931 to include comprehensive caste data. Furthermore, this transition marks India’s shift to a fully digital census format, intended to modernize the collection and classification of citizen data across the nation.