SC junks plea challenging delimitation of Maharashtra local body polls

Emphasising that there cannot be “any further impediment” in the conduct of local body polls in Maharashtra, the Supreme Court on Monday rejected a plea questioning the validity of the delimitation exercise for zilla parishads, panchayat samitis and other local bodies in the state, making it clear that it will not permit litigation aimed at stalling the electoral process.

“We are not going to entertain any plea that could delay the polls. All these petitions seem to be a ploy to delay the polls. The elections have to happen by January 31, as we directed earlier. There cannot be any further impediment in the conduct of polls,” said a bench led by Chief Justice of India Surya Kant and Justice Joymalya Bagchi.

The bench noted that once the State Election Commission (SEC) has announced the schedule and the top court itself has passed categorical directions, the court will not step in to disrupt or derail the timetable. “We are not going to entertain any petition that could delay the polls,” it stressed.

The observations came while dismissing a petition filed by Nikhil K Kolekar, who had challenged the delegation of powers by the SEC to divisional commissioners (DCs) for approving final delimitation proposals. Senior advocate Sudhanshu Choudhary, appearing for the petitioner, argued that the power to approve the division of electoral constituencies vested exclusively in the SEC under law and that delegating approval authority to state government officers amounted to abdication of its constitutional responsibility of ensuring independent and effective functioning.

But the bench remained unconvinced. Referring to the September 30 judgment of the Bombay High Court, the bench pointed out that the petitioner had not challenged the original communications through which the SEC and state government authorised DCs to undertake the task. The high court, the bench noted, had considered detailed materials and found no illegality in the final decisions taken by DCs regarding delimitation for Kolhapur, Satara and Sangli, the core dispute in the petition.

While dismissing the plea, the Supreme Court agreed to keep the question of law regarding delegation of powers open to be examined in an appropriate case.

Monday’s order comes closely on the heels of the November 28 direction by the same bench, which cleared the decks for elections to more than 280 municipal councils and nagar panchayats scheduled for December 2, while issuing a calibrated directive regarding seats where combined reservation for scheduled castes, scheduled tribes and other backward classes (OBCs) exceeds 50%.

In that order, the bench permitted the polls to be held as scheduled but ordered that the results of 40 municipal councils and 17 nagar panchayats, where reservation exceeds the ceiling, will be subject to final orders of the court. At the same time, the bench clarified that elections to 336 panchayat samitis and 32 zila parishads seats where election process was yet to commence, polls could go on for bodies wherever the reservation does not exceed the 50% mark.

The bench stressed that while reservation issues remain unresolved and contentious, particularly concerning the report of the Banthia Commission, the functioning of local bodies cannot be held hostage, and elections must proceed. The court is scheduled to take up on January 21 the petitions concerning OBC reservation and the validity of the Banthia Commission’s findings, assigning the matter to a three-judge bench.

The conduct of local body elections in Maharashtra – held up since 2022, has been a fiercely contested issue, resulting in multiple rounds of litigation and directions from the top court. The Supreme Court had in September ordered that all local body polls be completed by January 31, 2026. Subsequently, a bunch of petitions before the top court claimed that the state’s decision to allow 27% reservation to OBCs, on the basis of the Banthia Commission report, had led to the aggregate quota in several poll bound local bodies crossing the 50% cut off mark – laid down by the Supreme Court as the upper limit for providing reservation in local body polls.