Election requisition powers must be balanced with the right to education; teachers should ordinarily not be diverted during school hours.

The constitutional power to requisition staff for election and electoral-roll duties must be exercised harmoniously with the fundamental right to education. In this balance, the Court stated that election work should not ordinarily disrupt school teaching, so teachers should generally be deployed only on holidays, non-teaching days, or non-teaching hours, while non-teaching staff may be requisitioned as permitted by law. The governing principle is restraint in using election-related requisition powers where they would materially interfere with classroom instruction.

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Issues: Whether the services of teaching staff could be requisitioned for election and electoral-roll duties during teaching days and teaching hours, having regard to the constitutional power to conduct elections and the fundamental right to education.

Analysis: The constitutional scheme under Article 324 and the statutory framework under the Representation of the People Acts empower the Election Commission and the State to requisition staff for election-related work. At the same time, education is a fundamental right and the State has a corresponding duty to ensure that students are not deprived of instruction. The competing claims had to be harmonised so that the election process is not impeded, while the educational process is not materially disrupted. In view of this balance, the Court held that the statutory power to requisition staff must be exercised in a restrained manner and, so far as teachers are concerned, their deployment should ordinarily be confined to holidays and non-teaching days or hours.

Conclusion: The requisition of teaching staff for election work during teaching days and within teaching hours was not upheld as an ordinary course; teachers are to be deployed mainly on holidays and non-teaching periods, while non-teaching staff may be deployed as permitted by law.

Final Conclusion: The appeal failed, but the directions were modified so that election work and roll-revision duties should not ordinarily interfere with school teaching.

Ratio Decidendi: A constitutional power to requisition staff for elections must be read harmoniously with the fundamental right to education, and teachers should ordinarily not be diverted from teaching duties during school hours.

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