The Supreme Court on Thursday (December 4) directed state governments to deploy additional staff to reduce the working hours of Booth Level Officers (BLOs) for the Election Commission of India's (ECI) Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls.

A bench led by Chief Justice of India Surya Kant said that any individual who has specific reasons for seeking exemption from performing statutory election duties, the Competent Authority and the state government shall consider such requests on a case-by-case basis and replace such person with another person.

“In case they are facing hardships, including being overburdened with their routine duties as well as the additional duties assigned by the Election Commission, the state government can obviate such hardships," the bench said.

The s

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