The Supreme Court today issued a slew of directions to ease the workload on Booth Level Officers (BLOs) engaged in the Election Commission’s ongoing Special Intensive Revision (SIR) exercise of electoral rolls in several states. Taking note of a plea alleging extreme work pressure being faced by the BLOs engaged in the time-bound SIR drive, the top court directed the state governments to consider deputing additional employees for proportionately reducing their working hours. A bench of Chief Justice of India, Surya Kant and Justice Joymalya Bagchi observed that employees deputed by state governments and State Election Commissions are obligated to perform such duties, while adding that state governments should intervene whenever BLOs face difficulties.
The court made it clear that the state governments are duty-bound to deploy the requisite workforce at the disposal of the Election Commission during the SIR drive. The court was hearing an application filed by Tamilaga Vettri Kazhagam (TVK), led by actor-politician Vijay. The plea seeks a direction to the Election Commission not to take coercive action under the Representation of the People Act against the BLOs for not performing the duty in a time-bound manner and pointing out that many of them have committed suicide due to the work pressure.
The Election Commission launched the second phase of SIR in nine states and three Union territories in October. Nearly 51 crore electors will be covered in the massive exercise.
