The Election Commission has moved a division bench of the high court, challenging a single-bench order that set aside its decision to engage government college teachers as presiding officers for the Assembly polls. The petition is likely to be heard on Tuesday.

According to a lawyer connected with the case, the poll panel has cited provisions of Article 324 of the Constitution in its appeal. The Article vests in the EC the “superintendence, direction and control” of the preparation of electoral rolls and the conduct of elections.

Aditya Mondal, one of the lawyers representing the teachers who has read the draft petition, said the commission has specifically cited clause (6) of Article 324. The clause states that the President or the governor of a state shall, when requested by the EC, make available such staff as may be necessary for the discharge of its functions.

Mondal said the EC has also argued in its petition that it cannot be accused of violating its 2010 guideline on deployment of personnel, as the guideline no longer exists.

The 2010 guideline had stated that Group A or equivalent officers, including college teaching staff, should not be assigned polling duties at polling stations unless unavoidable circumstances were recorded in writing by district election officers. During last Friday’s hearing, counsel for the government college teachers had cited this provision.

Justice Krishna Rao had set aside the EC’s decision to appoint college teachers as presiding officers.

“The commission is now saying the guideline, which states that college teaching staff should not be assigned polling duties at polling station premises without specific justification, no longer exists,” Mondal said.

Senior advocate Soumya Majumdar, who had represented the EC during the earlier hearing, declined to comment. “I do not know anything about the petition,” he said.

Senior advocate Bikash Ranjan Bhattacharyya, appearing for the government college teachers, said the EC was likely to cite a shortage of personnel when the matter comes up before the division bench. “They are likely to raise the issue of difficulty owing to the absence of adequate staff. But the EC’s 2010 guidelines still stand,” he said.

At the earlier hearing, the EC had argued that it required presiding officers for around 90,000 polling booths across Bengal and had no option but to include college teachers in the deployment.

Government college teachers began receiving letters from the EC from mid-March, following the announcement of the two-phase poll schedule. Voting in Bengal is scheduled for April 23 and April 29.

A section of government college teachers under the West Bengal State Education Service had moved the court on April 8, challenging the commission’s decision. Along with citing the 2010 guideline, the petitioners argued that as Group A officers, college teachers should not be appointed as presiding officers.

“Given their rank, Group D employees can be appointed as presiding officers. Teachers can serve as observers or micro-observers, but not as presiding officers,” said Debasish Sarkar, general secretary of the Government College Teachers’ Association.