Voter list revision: Deploy additional staff if BLOs are facing hardship, Supreme Court tells states

The Supreme Court on Thursday issued directions to redress problems faced by booth-level officers during the special intensive revision of electoral rolls, Live Law reported.

The court asked the state governments to depute additional staff for the exercise so that the working hours of the booth-level officers can be “proportionately reduced” to alleviate their hardship.

The exercise is underway in 12 states and Union Territories: the Andaman and Nicobar Islands, Goa, Puducherry, Chhattisgarh, Gujarat, Kerala, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Tamil Nadu and Lakshadweep, Uttar Pradesh and West Bengal.

At least eight suicides by booth-level officers and at least seven deaths have been reported in West Bengal, Uttar Pradesh, Kerala and Rajasthan.

A bench of Chief Justice Surya Kant and Justice Joymalya Bagchi said that the officers deputed for the exercise by the state poll panels are at the disposal of the Election Commission and are “obligated to perform such duties”.

The bench was hearing a petition filed by actor-turned-politician Vijay’s Tamilaga Vettri Kazhagam seeking a stay on coercive actions by the Election Commission against booth-level officers for lapses in the duties related to the revision of voter lists.

Advocate Gopal Sankaranarayanan, representing the petitioner, alleged that notices were being sent to the booth-level officers saying that they will be imprisoned for two years if they do not meet deadlines, citing first information reports filed in Uttar Pradesh,...

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