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Taking note of a plea alleging extreme work pressure faced by the booth level officers (BLOs) engaged in the time-bound special revision of the electoral rolls, the Supreme Court directed the states to consider deputing additional employees for reducing their working hours.
The court was hearing an application filed by actor Vijay’s party, Tamilaga Vettri Kazhagam (TVK), seeking a direction to the Election Commission (EC) not to take coercive action under the Representation of the People (RP) Act against the BLOs for not performing their duty in a time-bound manner and pointing out that many of them have committed suicide due to the work pressure.
A bench of Chief Justice Surya Kant and Justice Joymalya Bagchi took note of the submissions made by senior advocate Gopal Sankaranarayanan, who appeared in the matter for the TVK, that some instructions are needed to be issued as many BLOs, who are either teachers or anganwadi workers, have died due to the extreme pressure exerted on them by EC officials.
Sankaranarayanan said moreover, the EC officials are also getting FIRs lodged against the BLOs if they fail to perform their duties.
The CJI said the states may consider deploying additional staff, so that the work pressure is eased.
“In case they are facing hardships, including being overburdened with their routine duties as well as the additional duties assigned by the Election Commission, the state government can obviate such hardships,” the bench noted.
The states may consider the “desirability of deputing additional staff at the disposal of the EC, so that the working hours can be proportionately reduced”, an order issued by the court said.
The bench said if any employee has any “specific reason” for seeking exemption from SIR duty, the competent officer of the state can consider such requests on a case-to-case basis and replace such an employee with another.
“However, it shall not be construed or understood as if they can withdraw the employees who have been assigned the duty if their substitutes are not provided,” it added.
The court further said the states where the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of the electoral rolls is underway, “shall be obligated to deploy the requisite workforce at the disposal of the EC, though the strength of such employees can be increased as explained above”.
