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Threats to BLOs: Deal with it or it will cause anarchy, Supreme Court tells EC

The Supreme Court expressed concern over threats to BLOs and disruptions to SIR work in West Bengal, warning the Election Commission to address the issue or risk administrative disorder.

3 min readNew DelhiUpdated: Dec 10, 2025 04:40 AM IST

The ECI told the Supreme Court it has all Constitutional powers to deal with threatening of BLOs and other officials engaged in SIR work.

The Supreme Court on Tuesday expressed concern over BLOs and other officials engaged in SIR exercise being “threatened” in West Bengal and other states, and asked the EC to deal with the situation or “it will cause anarchy”.

A bench of CJI Surya Kant and Justice Joymalya Bagchi also voiced concern over the alleged lack of cooperation by state governments in the SIR of electoral rolls and said, “What we want to ensure is that the SIR is done on the ground without any glitches.” “Bring to our notice instances of lack of cooperation, hindrances to work of BLOs and we will pass appropriate orders,” the bench told senior advocate Rakesh Dwivedi, appearing for the EC.

Dwivedi submitted, “The state governments are supposed to cooperate with us and give us protection. If the state government refuses to do so, then we have no option other than taking the local police under deputation. If the situation still does not improve, then we will have to call central forces.” Justice Bagchi said the poll panel cannot take the police under its jurisdiction until the commencement of the election process.

Dwivedi said the EC has all constitutional powers to deal with instances of BLOs and other officials engaged in SIR work being threatened.

“Deal with the situation or it will cause anarchy,” CJI Kant told Dwivedi, terming the situation “very serious”.

Appearing for the organisation ‘Sanatani Sangsad’, Senior Advocate V Giri also sought to highlight the alleged violence against BLOs and said they “should be given protection”. Justice Bagchi, however, pointed out that the petition had mentioned only one incident. He wondered if based on the one incident, “can we say this situation is unique and special to West Bengal alone and that there is no obstruction in any other state?” The court issued notice to EC on the plea for protection to BLOs.

The bench, while hearing a petition by NGO Aatmadeep for direction to include those who migrated from Bangladesh, fleeing prosecution, provisionally in the electoral rolls after the SIR in West Bengal, said that the question of inclusion on the basis of the CAA, 2019 in the electoral rolls would arise only after they have acquired citizenship. The court also refused to fix a deadline to process their citizenship applications but issued notice to the Centre through the office of the Attorney General.

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Justice Bagchi also pointed out that there were allegations that BLOs are overworked.

Dwivedi said there are many “political narratives” doing the rounds and pointed to how the workload had been eased by reducing the number of voters per polling booth to 1,200 from 1,500. Justice Bagchi said, “This is not desk work. BLO has to go to each house, verify and then the enumeration form is submitted to him. This is the pressure on him. This is why we directed the states to beef up the number of BLOs.”

With PTI inputs