GUWAHATI: The Manipur High Court has ordered that the Census exercise in the state would continue to be put on hold till April 30, 2027.
A division bench, comprising Chief Justice M Sundar and Justice A Guneshwar Sharma, issued the order on November 4 after hearing a public interest litigation filed by the Kangleipak Students’ Association and the International Peace and Social Advancement, along with a connected writ petition filed by Shanta Singh Nahakpam.
Referring to the notifications keeping the Census exercise in abeyance, the court said there would be no rollback or modification of the same until then.
“To put it differently, the census exercise for the State of Manipur will continue to be put on hold/kept in abeyance till 30.04.2027,” the court said in its order.
The court further ordered that even after the disposal of the representations, the Census process in the state would continue to remain suspended for four weeks to enable aggrieved parties to approach the court.
The petitioners had raised concerns over the Census process, citing the bloody ethnic violence and the resultant mass displacement of people.
They stressed that accurate enumeration requires meticulous preparation, particularly in updating jurisdictional boundaries and administrative units, raising questions about the accuracy of population records and the identification of those internally displaced by the ethnic violence.
On August 31, the Centre had deferred the Census operations in Manipur, which were scheduled to commence on September 1, amid demands by Meitei and Naga organisations that the updation of the National Register of Citizens (NRC) must precede the Census and delimitation exercises.
The decision to defer the Census had come after a high-level review meeting chaired by Union Home Minister Amit Shah in New Delhi.
“The meeting discussed in detail the demand raised by the people of Manipur to defer the Census exercise in the state before the implementation of the NRC. The meeting agreed to defer the proposed Census exercise in the state considering the feelings and aspirations of the people,” a Manipur government statement had then stated.
While Meitei and Naga organisations stuck to their guns on the NRC-first demand, the Kuki-Zo Council had dismissed the NRC demand, calling it “premature and unjustified”, and welcomed the Census exercise.
