Objection to appointing professors as presiding officers, EC moves Calcutta HC Division Bench

A major legal tussle has emerged ahead of the 2026 Assembly elections after the Election Commission of India challenged a Calcutta High Court order that struck down its decision to appoint assistant professors as Presiding Officers. The Commission has now moved the Division Bench of the Calcutta High Court seeking an urgent hearing, which is likely to take place on Tuesday.

The controversy began after a notification issued by the Commission assigning assistant professors to booth-level presiding duties was set aside by a single bench of Justice Krishna Rao. The court questioned the rationale behind deploying individuals of such rank and pay scale for standard polling responsibilities and observed that no convincing justification was provided by the Commission during the hearing.

A section of professors had earlier opposed the move, arguing that such assignments were not aligned with their professional status and amounted to disrespect. Following petitions filed by affected teachers, the court ruled that while professors could undertake higher-level responsibilities, appointing them as ordinary booth staff or Presiding Officers lacked merit. However, the court also clarified that only those whose training had not started or was ongoing would be exempted, while those who had already completed training would still be required to serve.

Challenging this order, the Commission approached a Division Bench led by Justice Shampa Sarkar, seeking immediate relief. During earlier proceedings, the Commission had argued that the case was filed too close to the elections, making it difficult to recruit and train new personnel, and warned that any disruption could impact staffing across 23 districts. The court, however, rejected this reasoning, stating that timing cannot justify flawed administrative decisions.

With district administrations in the final stages of preparing polling personnel lists, the ruling has created significant logistical challenges. The outcome of the upcoming Division Bench hearing is expected to be crucial in determining whether thousands of professors will ultimately be deployed for polling duties, adding uncertainty to the final phase of election preparations.