5 min readNew DelhiUpdated: Jul 28, 2026 08:15 PM IST
The ongoing Special Intensive Revision (SIR) exercise should in the Capital must not “cause so much stress” to teachers that it leads to “unbearable burden”, the Delhi High Court said on Tuesday as it questioned the Election Commission of India (ECI) “over the language used in its order” to school principals. The court was referring to the order issued to ensure deployment of school teachers as SIR enumerators or block level offices (BLOs).
A bench of Chief Justice DK Upadhyaya and Justice Tejas Karia was dealing with a public interest litigation (PIL) challenging the deputation of schoolteachers in the Ambedkar Nagar constituency for election-related work during school hours. The plea filed by advocates Rajesh Kumar Gogna and Ashok Agarwal contended that the deployment has severely disrupted classroom teaching and infringes the fundamental rights of schoolchildren. The PIL seeks the court’s direction that such deployment be rationalised by capping it at 10% with a provision to provide qualified substitute teachers whenever necessary.
Addressing ECI’s counsel, while referring to an order issued by the Electoral Registration Officer (ERO) to school principals to ensure strict compliance, the court said, “What we want is you to be a bit sensitive to their situation. We are not curtailing your right…but we are conscious of the Right to Education as also the human condition…asking any teacher to work for 11 hours…they have their children, their families…you’ve to humanise their condition. The kind of language you’ve used in this order…(is) to create fear or what?”
The ERO order dated July 27 to school principals objected to the direction of school heads to BLOs, who have been deployed for SIR duty, “to attend routine school work or are otherwise creating hindrances in the discharge of their election-related responsibilities”.
“No principal, head of school or any other administrative authority is authorised to prevent, obstruct or interfere with the discharge of election duties assigned to BLOs and BLO supervisors. They shall not compel such officers to prioritise routine institutional work over election-related assignments…any such interference shall be viewed seriously and may invite appropriate action…,” the order read.
The bench, emphasising on the need to balance ECI’s powers with children’s Right to Education, recorded in its order, “We may only observe that authority and power of the ECI to engage teachers for election-related duties can be traced under Article 324 (powers and duties of ECI) along with (provisions of the) Representation of Peoples Act. There is no dispute regarding the powers of the ECI to requisition teachers for engaging them in election-related duties.”
“However, having as observed as above, the mandate of Section 27 of the Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education Act, 2009 (which prohibits deployment of teachers for non-educational purpose) cannot be lost sight of, by all concerned,” the court observed.
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Referring to SC judgments that have laid down the need to balance the mandate of ECI and the mandate of the State to provide education, and taking the ECI’s submission on record that teachers are being deployed for election-related duties only after school hours and on holidays or non-teaching days, the court said, “We, however, may also emphasise that after working in a school for 6-8 hours, teacher is engaged to perform election-related duties that may cause stress and therefore its is expected of the ECI and its officers to be mindful of the stress which a teacher undergoes while performing election-related duties after school hours or on non teaching days.”
The court added, “Accordingly, we direct that while assigning the work related to electoral roll revision to the teachers, the aforesaid aspect shall also be kept in mind by the ECI and its officers, and therefore they shall take all appropriate steps so that the election-related work does not cause so much stress on the teachers which may lead to unbearable burden. Though counsel for ECI has stated all such measures be taken, however, we may still emphasise that the district election officers (DEOs) and electoral registration officers (EROs) shall be mindful.”
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