Calcutta High Court division bench clears way for government assistant professors’ poll duty

PTI, KOLKATA, APR 21, 2026 : A division bench of Calcutta High Court on Tuesday cleared the way for assistant professors in state government colleges to do poll duty as presiding officers for this assembly election in West Bengal, staying a single bench order that had set aside their requisition by the Election Commission.

The court said that although some professors had approached it, others assumed the duty as per the Election Commission's requisition.

Staying a single bench order that set aside their appointment as presiding officers, a division bench comprising justices Shampa Sarkar and Ajay Gupta observed that while officers of Group A rank should not be drafted for poll duty by the EC without recording specific reasons, the assistant professors should also understand the commission's requirement.

A single bench of the high court had on April 17 set aside the appointment of some assistant professors as presiding officers by the Election Commission for the two-phase assembly elections in West Bengal. The petitioners, belonging to the West Bengal Government College Teachers' Association, filed the application challenging their appointment as presiding officers in different polling booths for the state assembly elections scheduled on April 23 and 29.

The single bench had set aside and quashed the appointment of the petitioner professors as presiding officers for the state assembly election, holding that the authorities failed to produce any document to show the unavoidable circumstances on the basis of which the authorities took a decision to appoint them as presiding officers in polling booths.

According to their lawyer Shamim Ahmed, the association that moved the court has over 300 members.