Section 28 in The West Bengal Panchayat Elections Act, 2003
28. Appointment of Presiding Officer and polling officers.
(1)Subject to the provisions of sub-section (5) of section 6 of the West Bengal State Election Commission Act, 1994, the Panchayat Returning Officer shall, with the prior approval of the District Panchayat Election Officer, appoint a Presiding Officer for each polling station and such number of polling officer or officers to assist the Presiding Officer as he thinks necessary but shall not appoint any person who has been employed by, or on behalf of, or has been otherwise working for, a candidate in or about the election as a Presiding Officer or a polling officer:Provided that if any polling officer is absent from the polling station, the Presiding Officer may appoint in his place any person who is present at the polling station other than a person who has been employed by, or on behalf of, or has been otherwise working for, a candidate in or about the election to be the polling officer and shall, when such appointment is made, inform the Panchayat Returning Officer accordingly.(2)A polling officer shall, if so directed by the Presiding Officer, perform all or any of the functions of a Presiding Officer under this Act or the rules made thereunder.(3)If the Presiding Officer, owing to illness or for other unavoidable causes, is obliged to absent himself from performing his functions in the polling station, his functions shall be performed by such polling officer as has been previously authorised by the Panchayat Returning Officer to perform such function during such absence.(4)In the event of simultaneous election of members to Gram Panchayat, Panchayat Samiti, Zilla Parishad or the Siliguri Mahakuma Parishad, or in the case of any of the two simultaneous elections, as the case may be, the same set of persons referred to in sub-section (1) shall be appointed as Presiding or polling officers to conduct the poll.Explanation. - A Presiding Officer shall, unless the context otherwise requires, be deemed to include a person performing any function which he is authorised to perform under sub-section (2) or sub-section (3), as the case may be.
