KOLKATA, April 21 -- The Calcutta high court on Tuesday allowed the Election Commission of India (ECI) to post assistant and associate professors from government colleges as presiding officers in polling booths for the two-phase Bengal assembly polls on April 23 and 29.

A bench of justices Shampa Sarkar and Ajay Kumar Gupta stayed the April 17 ruling by a single bench of justice Krishna Rao on an appeal filed by ECI.

In Tuesday's order, the bench observed that assistant and associate professors could work as presiding officers in polling booths because it was a constitutional duty.

In a 2010 directive, ECI said that professors, assistant professors and associate professors could not work at polling booths except in extraordinary circum...