Taking note of a plea alleging extreme work pressure faced by the booth level officers (BLOs) engaged in the time-bound special revision of the electoral rolls, the Supreme Court directed the states on Thursday to consider deputing additional employees for reducing their working hours.

The court was hearing an application filed by actor Vijay’s party, Tamilaga Vetri Kazhagam (TVK), seeking a direction to the Election Commission (EC) not to take coercive actions under the Representation of the People (RP) Act against the BLOs for not performing the duty in a time-bound manner and pointing out that many of them have committed suicide due to the work pressure.