The Rajasthan High Court has issued show-cause notices to the State Election Commission and State Election Commissioner Rajeshwar Singh for failing to comply with its directive to conduct panchayat and municipal body polls by April 15, 2026.
A division bench headed by acting Chief Justice Sanjeev Prakash Sharma ordered the issuance of the notices while hearing a contempt of court petition filed by former MLA Sanyam Lodha on Thursday.
The court asked how the commission could declare a schedule for the review of electoral rolls for civic polls beyond the April 15, 2026, deadline it had earlier set for conducting the elections.
The notice is returnable within four weeks.
In his petition, counsel for Lodha, Puneet Singhvi, stated that the state government and the commission appeared to be attempting to defer the polls on one pretext or another. He pointed out that the schedule for review of voter lists issued by the State Election Commission fixed April 22 as the date for final publication of the electoral rolls, which goes beyond the court-mandated deadline of April 15, 2026, thereby amounting to contempt of court.
Advocate General Rajendra Prasad told the court that the state government intends to postpone the polls and plans to move a proper application seeking the court’s permission.
The court, however, laid stress on issuing the show-cause notice, saying “that is a different matter”. It stated that, for now, the commission is supposed to explain why it announced the electoral rolls review programme beyond the deadline fixed by the bench.
Earlier, on November 14, 2025, while hearing 439 petitions, the court had directed the State Election Commission to conduct panchayat and urban local body elections by April 15, 2026. The court had also asked the state government to complete the delimitation process by December 31, 2025.