The Delhi High Court on Friday questioned the Election Commission for deploying government school teachers for duties related to the special intensive revision of electoral rolls in the national capital, reported Bar and Bench.

“Taking shade of Article 324, you do whatever you like?” a bench of Chief Justice Devendra Kumar Upadhyaya and Justice Tejas Karia asked the poll panel while hearing a petition challenging the move.

Article 324 empowers the Election Commission to supervise, direct and control elections for Parliament and state legislatures.

The poll panel is carrying out the special intensive revision exercise to revise electoral rolls through house-to-house enumeration and verification of old voter data.

On Friday, the court was hearing a petition filed by advocates Rajesh Kumar Gogna and Ashok Agarwal, who alleged that the poll panel had deployed all regular teachers of some government schools as booth-level officers for the voter roll revision.

Classes in such schools have been left to guest teachers or those who may not be familiar with the subjects, claimed the advocates. They submitted that the voter roll revision work was not confined to holidays or non-teaching hours, reported Bar and Bench.

The advocates also said that the practice was discriminatory, as only teachers from government schools, municipal schools and government-aided schools had been pulled out for the voter roll revision work.

Appearing for the poll panel, lawyer Sanjay Vashishtha told the court that the Election Commission had told the teachers to do voter roll revision-related work after school hours or on their holidays, reported Live Law.

“The exercise is almost over,” said Vashishtha. “All endeavour has been made to ensure that no regular assignment or teaching is hampered.”

However, the court asked the poll panel why teachers were not entitled to their holidays. “Don’t they need rest?” asked the bench.

It directed the Election Commission to file an affidavit by July 27 and posted the matter for July 28.

On July 15, the Election Commission extended the deadline for the house-to-house verification of voters in Delhi by 10 days. The process, which began on June 30, was scheduled to conclude on July 29, but will now continue till August 8.

Voter rolls are being revised in the national capital in the third phase of the special intensive revision exercise. With this phase, the exercise will cover the entire country except Himachal Pradesh, Jammu and Kashmir, and Ladakh. The Election Commission said that the schedule for the revision in these regions will be announced later, considering the Census exercise and the adverse weather.

In 2025, the first phase of the voter roll revision exercise was conducted in Bihar and the second phase in 12 states and Union Territories.

Concerns have been raised that the exercise could remove eligible voters from the roll.

Several petitions were filed in the Supreme Court against the voter roll revision.

Edited by Tanya Shrivastava.

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