The Supreme Court on Thursday upheld the Delhi high court judgement asserting that school teachers cannot be deployed for election duty during working days.

A bench, comprising justices S B Sinha and H S Bedi, put its seal of approval on the Delhi high court ruling and dismissed the appeal of the Election Commission against the high court judgement.

St Mary's school and others had challenged in the Delhi high court the orders of the Election Commission deploying teachers for election duty on the grounds that it was hampering the academic interest of the students.

The school had also contended that deploying school teachers for election duty on working days left the school without teachers, affecting the students, which cannot be permitted.

The Election Commission had challenged the high court judgement that elections cannot be managed without the services of school teachers and that the studies of the children do not suffer as school and government offices are usually closed on the day of polling.