The Rajasthan High Court has directed state government and state election commission to hold panchayat and civic bodies elections by July 31.
The OBC Commission has been asked to submit its report by June 20. The government had sought time from the court till December.
Earlier, the Division Bench of Acting Chief Justice SP Sharma had reserved the judgement after completing the hearing on May 11.
In fact, the High Court, while pronouncing judgement on 439 petitions on 14 November 2025, had directed the state government to hold panchayat-local bodies elections by 15 April 2026.
But the government did not hold the elections within the stipulated time limit and filed a petition in the High Court to postpone the elections.
During the hearing, the government had said that the report of the OBC commission had not come and that the election would not be held due to other circumstances.
Here, former MLAs Sajman Lodha and Girraj Singh Devanda said that the government has been deliberately postponing elections for the last one and a half years.
The government had said that the tenure of many panchayat samitis and zila parishads is expiring between September and December. It would be better to hold elections after the end of their term. This will also strengthen the notion of ‘one state-one election'.
In the petition, the government had said that all possible efforts were made to comply with the court's order. But the current situation is such that it was not possible to hold elections by April 15.
Government had sought postponement
The government had requested the High Court to postpone the election citing the report of the OBC Commission, the availability of other resources including schools, staff, EVMs.
The State Election Commission had also filed a petition in the High Court seeking postponement of the election. In its application, the Commission had supported the government's arguments to extend the election dates, saying that it was not possible to hold elections before the determination of the OBC reservation.
The BuckStopper, run by a group of seasoned journalists, holds the powerful accountable. The buck stops with them, as they cannot shrug off their official responsibilities.
