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ECI can appoint Bengal college professors as presiding officers of polling booths: Calcutta HC
A bench of justices Shampa Sarkar and Ajay Kumar Gupta stayed the April 17 ruling on an appeal filed by ECI
The Calcutta high court on Tuesday allowed the Election Commission of India (ECI) to post assistant and associate professors from government colleges as presiding officers in polling booths for the two-phase Bengal assembly polls on April 23 and 29.
A bench of justices Shampa Sarkar and Ajay Kumar Gupta stayed the April 17 ruling by a single bench of justice Krishna Rao on an appeal filed by ECI.
In Tuesday’s order, the bench observed that assistant and associate professors could work as presiding officers in polling booths because it was a constitutional duty.
In a 2010 directive, ECI said that professors, assistant professors and associate professors could not work at polling booths except in extraordinary circumstances. Professors, assistant professors and associate professors were accordingly posted as micro-observers because they were Grade-A rank officers.
“Rupa Banerjee, an associate professor posted as presiding officer this year, moved the single bench of justice Rao. During the hearing, the court said that ECI failed to establish that her posting was unavoidable,” Shamim Ahmed, one of the petitioners’ lawyers, told the media.
Subsequently, several assistant and associate professors, including some from Visva-Bharati, Bengal’s only central university, moved the high court against their assignment.
On Tuesday, the division bench was told that the ECI served show cause notice to these petitioners because they did not report for training sessions for presiding officers.
The bench directed the ECI to start the training on Wednesday.
