SC has taken note of the fact that angadwadi workers are being made to do BLO work under coercive pressure.
“There have already been 21 instances of BLOs taking their own lives,” senior advocate Gopal Sankaranarayanan submitted before CJI Surya Kant.
A complaint has also been filed before the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) by a Mumbai-based advocate on the grounds of “inhuman workload and coercive pressure” being put on BLOs during the second phase of the SIR.
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There is “inhuman workload and coercive pressure” on the booth-level officers (BLOs) during the second phase of the Election Commission’s Special Intensive Revision, and this has resulted in many deaths with causes ranging from cardiac arrests to suicide, the Supreme Court was told on Monday.
The submission was made by senior advocate Gopal Sankaranarayanan who was appearing for Tamilaga Vettri Kazhagam (TVK) in its challenge against the SIR. Speaking before a bench headed by Chief Justice of India Surya Kant, Sankaranarayanan said Anganwadi workers were under “severe pressure” to attain “targets” in the distribution of enumeration forms for the SIR. He added that this include threat of imprisonment and loss of jobs.
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Saying that this was a human issue rather than a legal one, Sankaranarayanan said that in Tamil Nadu, the Anganwadi staff had been forced into doing work for the SIR under threat of three months’ jail time for breach of official duty in connection with preparing electoral rolls (Section 32 of the Representation of the People Act of 1950.) The senior advocate added that the workers had been told they could be arrested if they don’t meet the form distribution targets. They have also been told that they will lose their jobs.
“There have already been 21 instances of BLOs taking their own lives,” the senior counsel said, while adding that the ECI had extended the enumeration phase from December 4 to December 11, 2025.
Chief Justice Kant said the issue would be taken up separately when the batch of petitions challenging the Tamil Nadu SIR came up for hearing later during the week.
“You are saying Anganwadi workers should not be employed in the SIR exercise…” Chief Justice Kant said.
To this the senior advocate replied that this was a human issue, not just a legal one.
Sankaranarayanan’s submission before the top court follows a complaint filed in the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) by a Mumbai-based advocate on the grounds of “inhuman workload and coercive pressure” being put on BLOs during the second phase of the SIR.
Deaths of BLOs have been reported in Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, Gujarat, West Bengal, Rajasthan, Tamil Nadu and Kerala. As recently as November 30, 2025, a BLO in Moradabad died by suicide. His suicide note, according to PTI, mentioned the SIR saying “there was not enough time.” Another death by cardiac arrest of a BLO in Bijnor was also reported on Sunday.
An earlier petition filed by Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) highlighting the lack of due process along with an unreasonably short timeline for the conduct of SIR in Tamil Nadu.
“The unilateral imposition of such an unprecedented, resource‑intensive and socially disruptive process on a State, without consultation or demonstrable administrative exigency, transgresses the federal structure of the Constitution, recognised as part of its basic structure” DMK had said.
