Government college teachers cannot be appointed as presiding officers for the Assembly elections, the high court ruled on Friday.

The EC had argued that it required presiding officers for around 90,000 polling booths across Bengal and that it had no option but to include college teachers.

A group of government college teachers had challenged the order, arguing that it violated the EC’s own 2010 guidelines, which stated that teaching staff of colleges should not be assigned polling duties in polling station premises without specific justification.

Justice Krishna Rao observed in his order that the EC had failed to produce any document demonstrating “unavoidable circumstances” for such deployment. The court noted that assistant professors and associate professors from government colleges had been appointed as presiding officers without justification.

“The Court finds that the authorities, without taking any decision, have appointed the petitioners... as Presiding Officers in violation of the circular dated 16/17 February 2010. Accordingly, the appointment... is set aside and quashed,” the order stated.

The judge noted that despite being given opportunities, the EC had not produced any documents to justify requisitioning teachers. “The Commission decided to engage teachers without any specific reason,” the judge observed, adding: “However, teachers who wish to work as presiding officers are free to do so...”

The 2010 EC 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.

Senior advocate Bikash Ranjan Bhattacharyya, appearing for the petitioners, said that the EC’s own policy prohibited such deployment and that sufficient personnel existed in the poll pool. He said: “Teachers can work as observers or micro-observers, but not as presiding officers.”

A section of government college teachers under the West Bengal State Education Service had moved the court on April 8, challenging the EC’s decision.

The EC’s counsel, Soumya Majumdar, told the court: “Some college teachers were presiding officers in the Lok Sabha polls. There are 90,000 booths across Bengal. We lack poll staff.”