The Supreme Court on Friday refused to interfere with a Rajasthan High Court order directing the state government to complete long-pending panchayat and municipal elections by April 2026, after the state assured that the polls would be conducted within the stipulated timeline.
A bench led by Chief Justice of India Surya Kant, with Justices Joymalya Bagchi and Vipul M Pancholi, disposed of a plea filed by Congress leader and former MLA Sanyam Lodha, who had sought immediate conduct of municipal elections, alleging an unwarranted delay in holding local body polls across Rajasthan.
Appearing for the state government, Additional Solicitor General K M Nataraj submitted that the delimitation exercise for rural and urban local bodies was nearing completion and that elections would be held within the deadline fixed by the high court.
Taking note of this assurance, the CJI said there was no reason at this stage to doubt the statement made by the state government. The bench clarified that if the elections were delayed for any reason, the parties would be free to approach the high court again.
“It seems to us that the delimitation exercise is nearing completion, and the high court has issued directions to complete the exercise by April 15, 2026. We see no reason to entertain this SLP (Special Leave Petition),” the bench observed while declining to interfere with the Rajasthan High Court’s November 14 order.
By that order, the high court had directed the state to conduct the pending panchayat and municipal corporation elections together and complete the entire process by April 15, 2026. It had also instructed the authorities to conclude the delimitation exercise for both rural and urban local bodies by December 31.
The high court had dismissed a batch of petitions challenging the reorganisation and delimitation of panchayats, as well as pleas questioning the removal of pradhans and sarpanches who were later reappointed as administrators.
Rajasthan is required to hold elections in over 11,000 gram panchayats and 309 urban local bodies. Lodha and other petitioners had argued that the prolonged postponement of elections violated constitutional mandates and the provisions of the Rajasthan Panchayat Raj Act, 1994.
