Voter list revision: Deploy additional staff if BLOs are facing hardship, Supreme Court tells states

The Supreme Court on Thursday put the onus entirely on State governments to substitute employees unable to bear the pressure of Booth Level Officer (BLO) work, but refused to let the reported distress of the workforce “hamper” a tightly wound second phase of the Special Intensive Revision of electoral rolls conducted by the Election Commission across nine States and three Union Territories.

The court said States could also choose to depute additional employees to strengthen the BLOs’ ranks and reduce their work stress.

A Bench of Chief Justice of India Surya Kant and Joymalya Bagchi emphasised that State employees recruited as BLOs had an obligation to perform the statutory duties assigned to them, in this case distributing enumeration forms to electors as part of the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) process.