In West Bengal, 65 election officers have been excluded from the electoral rolls, preventing them from voting while they are tasked with conducting elections. This issue has drawn criticism, particularly from Ajijul Hoque, a presiding officer for nearly three decades, who expressed disappointment over the Election Commission of India’s handling of the situation. The Supreme Court recently instructed these officers to wait for the decisions of tribunals, which have processed only a fraction of the 34 lakh pending applications. Many of the affected officers, including Hoque and Swati Mollah, claim their names were deleted without proper notice or reasoning, despite having verified electoral identities. They argue this contradicts the trust placed in them to conduct elections. The officers have raised concerns about procedural fairness, citing discrepancies in their names and documentation that led to their exclusion. As they continue their duties, the irony remains that they are deemed untrustworthy to vote but trusted to oversee the electoral process.