The Calcutta high court on Friday set aside an Election Commission of India (ECI) order that appointed assistant and associate professors from government colleges as presiding officers at polling booths for the two-phase Bengal Assembly polls on April 23 and 29, lawyers who attended the hearing said.
“The ECI said in a 2010 directive that professors, assistant professors and associate professors cannot be employed as presiding officers in polling booths unless circumstances are extraordinary. After hearing a petition filed by Rupa Banerjee, who was posted as presiding officer, the bench of Justice Krishna Rao said that the ECI failed to establish that her posting was unavoidable,” Shamim Ahmed, one of the petitioners’ lawyers, said.
Following Banerjee, several assistant and associate professors approached the court. They argued that posts such as professor and assistant professor fall under the Group A category.
Representing the ECI, senior advocate Soumya Majumdar told the court that a circular issued by the poll body in 2023 had set aside its earlier directives.
Majumdar argued that postings according to rank and pay may not always be possible, given the large manpower required to hold polls in around 90,000 booths across Bengal.
