Prayagraj, following the directions issued by the concerned authorities to entrust the census duties to the LIC employees, the Allahabad High Court dismissed a writ petition filed by the North Central District Insurance Officers, saying that the authority/district official had not committed any wrongdoing or violation of the law.
The petitioner has sought quashing of the decision to involve LIC employees in the census work.
Dismissing the petition, Justice Dinesh Pathak said, “This court is of the view that the licensed authority/district officer has not committed any error or violation of law in issuing orders in exercise of delegated power to direct LIC employees to discharge their duties as enumerators/supervisors to facilitate the functioning of census operations.”
“Further, the writ petition contains only a vague prayer seeking quashing of the decision to engage LIC employees in census work and no specific challenge to any particular order has been made.”
During the hearing, counsel for the petitioner submitted that under Section 4-A of the Census Act, 1948, only employees of local authorities may be assigned to perform census duties as enumerators/supervisors.
He also contended that LIC employees do not fall within the definition of “local authorities” as defined under Section 3 of the General Clauses Act, 1897. Therefore, entrusting them with census duties is “wholly unsustainable” in the eyes of the law.
On the other hand, the Federal Government Counsel emphasized that Section 4-A of the Census Act, 1948 cannot be read in isolation and must be interpreted in conjunction with Sections 6 and 7 of the Act, 1948, which specifically contemplates the involvement of employees of factories, companies and institutions in census work.
He stressed that LIC falls within the ambit of a “commercial enterprise” and therefore the participation of its employees in census operations falls within the ambit of the 1948 Act.
It was further stated that Rule 3 of the Census Rules, 1990 specifies the categories of employees who may be appointed as Census Officers. Thus, according to the Union Government Counsel, the rule gives wide discretion to the competent authority to appoint appropriate persons as enumerators.
“In the backdrop of the legal proposal, the licensing authority/district officer is competent to issue orders directing persons working in LIC to act as enumerators/supervisors of census work,” the court said in its May 29 ruling.
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