New Delhi. The Supreme Court on Thursday is hearing petitions challenging the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of voter lists in West Bengal, Tamil Nadu and other states. The court said that the employees appointed by the state governments or state election commissions will have to perform the duty of SIR. The bench of Chief Justice of India Surya Kant and Justice Joymalya Bagchi said that the state government employees are bound to perform other statutory duties including SIR. It is also the duty of the State Governments to provide staff to the Election Commission. The court said that if the booth level officers (BLOs) engaged in SIR work are overburdened with work, then the states should employ more staff. The bench said- This will help in reducing the working hours of BLOs and will reduce the pressure on the officers already doing SIR in addition to their regular work.
It is noteworthy that the Supreme Court was hearing the petition filed by Tamilaga Vetri Kazhagam, the party of actor-turned-politician Vijay. The party had challenged the action being taken by the Election Commission against those who did not perform their duties properly as BLOs. The party said that the EC is taking criminal action under Section 32 of the Representation of the People Act for not being able to act against the BLOs who are burdened with work. The Supreme Court has now issued instructions in this matter.
