Supreme Court Flags Alarming BLO Deaths, Tells States to Deploy More Staff for Voter List Revision

Delhi: In a sharp intervention, the Supreme Court on Thursday raised serious concerns over the growing number of deaths—including suicides—reported among Booth Level Officers (BLOs) assigned to the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls. The court observed that BLOs, many of whom are schoolteachers and Anganwadi workers, are being pushed to “extreme levels of pressure” during the revision process.

The matter came up during the hearing of a petition filed by Tamil actor Vijay’s political party, Tamilaga Vettri Kazhagam (TVK), which highlighted the “inhumane workload” faced by BLOs, and claimed that several officials had died due to relentless pressure from election authorities.

A bench of Chief Justice of India Surya Kant and Justice Joymalya Bagchi took serious note of the submissions and directed states and union territories to immediately reinforce manpower for SIR duties. The court said governments should not treat the issue as routine administration, emphasising that human lives were at stake.

Senior advocate Gopal Sankaranarayanan, representing TVK, argued that many BLOs were being forced to shoulder excessive workloads and were threatened with criminal action under Section 32 of the Representation of the People Act if they failed to meet targets. The provision allows imprisonment of up to two years for dereliction of duty.

The Supreme Court remarked that such pressure was unacceptable and asked all states to deploy additional workers so that BLOs could be relieved of unreasonable burdens.

“Where 10,000 staff have been deployed, even 30,000 can be deployed,” the bench said while stressing that overburdening frontline officers was neither legal nor humane. The court further directed that BLOs suffering from illness or personal crises must be granted leave without fear of punitive action, and that substitute staff should be arranged wherever possible. However, the bench clarified that states cannot withdraw appointed officers unless replacements are provided.