The Supreme Court held that the format of collecting caste data in the upcoming Census is a policy matter and left the petitioners to approach the Census authorities.

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• On October 28, 2026, the Supreme Court disposed of a writ petition by the OBC Federation of India seeking a pre-loaded list of OBC castes in the digital Census 2027 tools.
• The petitioner wanted respondents to select their caste from a drop-down menu instead of typing it manually.
• A bench of Chief Justice of India Surya Kant and Justices Joymalya Bagchi and V. Mohana heard the matter.
• The bench said the choice between an open-ended question and a drop-down menu is a policy decision.
• The court allowed the petitioner to approach the Registrar General and Census Commissioner of India with its demand.
• The Registrar General has already decided to use an open-ended question on caste rather than a drop-down menu.
• The caste question will be asked alongside the population enumeration phase of the Census.
• Congress has flagged the absence of a drop-down caste menu as a flaw in the Census 2027 questionnaire.
• Census 2027 is described as India's first fully digital Census and the first comprehensive caste count since 1931.
• On May 20, 2026, the Supreme Court had dismissed a PIL challenging the Centre's decision to include caste enumeration, calling it a matter of government policy.
• In that hearing the court observed that the government must know the number of persons in backward castes to frame welfare measures.
• Independent India's first Census in 1951 dropped caste enumeration for groups other than Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes.