Kolkata: “You (Election Commission of India) can appoint judges also under Section 26 (of Representation of People Act) as polling officers… I am ready to go,” said Justice Krishna Rao of the Calcutta High Court on Thursday, slamming the EC for not producing notifications, indicating whether assistant professors could be appointed as presiding polling officers in the Assembly elections or not.Justice Rao gave EC another opportunity to get the facts supporting its action. The case will again be heard on Friday. A group of assistant professors moved the HC, challenging the ECI order, directing them to join as presiding officers during the election. Represented by senior advocate Bikash Ranjan Bhattacharya, their argument was that the EC, in a previous order, had stated, “Group-A-equivalent officers, including teaching staff of universities, colleges, should not be drafted for ‘polling duties’ on polling station premises without specific reasons to be recorded in writing by the DEO, where such appointments have become unavoidable.“Section 26 deals with the appointment of presiding officers for polling stations. It states that a district election officer can appoint a presiding officer for each polling station as he thinks necessary, but will not appoint anyone who is employed by or is working for a candidate. Justice Rao on Thursday, after hearing ECI counsel’s arguments based on Section 26 of Representation of People Act, said, “Then you can appoint judges also as polling officers because Section 26 does not say that a constitutional court cannot be appointed. We can also go to the polling office. I am ready to go. It is not a joke, every time you are changing your notification.”The EC’s counsel then went into 2023 notifications of the Commission, which dealt with the role of micro-observers. They emphasised that a micro-observer’s duty started four months ago with training. Assistant professors’ counsel Bhattacharya replied that their main demand was not to be assigned the duty of a presiding officer. “There is a pool of officers, let them be assigned. Let teachers not be humiliated like this,” he said.The EC’s counsel pointed out that the requisition was for March 19 and that the professors had come to court now, which was too late a date. “At this stage, interfering with the entire procedure will halt the election,” the counsel told the court. To this, Justice Rao said even if it was the day before, the petition had to be decided on law. “Show me the notification by which they have been requisitioned,” Justice Rao said.When the EC’s counsel went into an SC order, appointing judicial officers for SIR, Justice Rao said, “Okay, so I am referring the matter to the SC. The order of SC is being used by EC like this.”
