The Supreme Court has agreed to hear a petition questioning whether state governments can redraw ward boundaries while a Census is underway. A three‑judge bench headed by Chief Justice Surya Kant has scheduled the hearing for 9 October 2026.
The petition, filed by former Kadapa Municipal Corporation mayor Paka Suresh, challenges the legality of any delimitation of wards during the Census 2027. Rule 8(iv) of the Census Rules 1990 requires state governments to freeze the administrative boundaries of districts, tehsils, towns and other units from the date notified by the Census Commissioner. The freeze ensures that all enumeration blocks are coded against a fixed territorial framework, preventing double counting or omission. The Registrar General and Census Commissioner issued a prohibition on 13 August 2025, freezing boundaries from 1 January 2026 to 31 March 2027.
The Andhra Pradesh High Court, in an October 1, 2026 judgment, held that the prohibition applied only to administrative blocks such as municipalities and did not extend to individual wards. However, a Madhya Pradesh High Court decision held the opposite, stating that the prohibition covered wards within municipal areas. Mr. Nazki, the petitioner’s advocate, argues that the conflicting High Court rulings create a legal inconsistency that requires Supreme Court clarification.
The petitioner contends that allowing ward boundary changes at this advanced stage would render the Census exercise meaningless. Any new ward boundaries would necessitate new coding and would invalidate existing house listings and enumeration blocks, undermining the comparability of data across units and across successive Censuses.
