PRAYAGRAJ, Nov. 7 -- The Allahabad high court has observed that government teachers can be assigned election-related duties as booth level officers (BLOs), including work pertaining to preparation, revision, correction of electoral rolls, special intensive review (SIR), etc.

A single judge bench of justice Vinod Diwakar referred to section 27 of the Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education Act, 2009 (RTE Act), which expressly permits the deployment of teachers for election-related duties and that BLO duties fall within this exception.

Making this observation, the high court dismissed a writ petition filed by Azra Parveen and four others, working as assistant teachers at junior/senior schools in Saharanpur. They had challenged ...