Maharashtra Local Body Polls: High Court Defers Vote Count For Phase One
The results of Tuesday's elections should be published along with the results of the December 20 elections, the HC said.
The Bombay High Court on Tuesday directed the Maharashtra State Election Commission (SEC) not to hold the counting of votes for the first phase of local body polls on December 3, on the ground that the 'disclosure of public mood' through the results might affect the subsequent phase of the elections.
The results of Tuesday's elections should be published along with the results of the December 20 elections, the HC said. In a subsequent statement, the SEC said the counting of votes for elections to all the 288 municipal councils and nagar panchayats across Maharashtra will begin at 10 AM on December 21.
The division bench of Justices Anil Kilor and Rajnish Vyas at Nagpur also directed that the results of any exit polls shall not be published till half an hour after the closing of the polls on December 20.
The SEC last week rescheduled the polls in 24 local bodies to December 20 due to apparent irregularities in the process. The remaining 264 municipal councils and nagar panchayats went to polls on Tuesday.
The counting for votes for this phase was scheduled to take place on Wednesday.
The high court was hearing a bunch of petitions challenging the SEC's November 29 revised schedule for polls in some areas. The SEC's revised notification had said that the counting will be held as per the original schedule.
The high court, however, noted that 'if the public mood is disclosed by declaring the result on 3.12.2025 of the polls to be held on 2.12.2025 (Tuesday), it may materially affect the result of the polls to be held on 20.12.2025.' Therefore, the SEC's decision to declare the results in two phases was 'not just and proper and needs to be interfered with for fair and transparent election', the judges said.
One of the petitioners, activist Sachin Chute, has challenged the postponement of polls for one division of the Chandrapur Municipal Council to December 20.
Chute, through advocates M Anil Kumar and Yash Kullarwar, pleaded that the declaration of results should 'be conducted on a single date and not in a staggered or bifurcated manner.'
The poll body's order 'violated the fundamental principle that elections must be free, fair and provide a level-playing field to all candidates', the petition said.
Besides deferring the counting date and putting restrictions on the publication of exit polls, the high court said the model code of conduct shall continue to apply till the declaration of results.
The high court will further hear the petitions against the SEC's revised election programme on December 10.
While deferring the elections to 24 local bodies to December 20, the SEC had said there were irregularities observed in the election process, including the timeline for withdrawal of nominations and allocation of election symbols.
In several cases, the appeal verdicts from the District Court were delivered after November 22, or in some instances, candidates did not get the three-day period to withdraw nomination papers as per Rule 17(1)(b) of the Maharashtra Municipalities Election Rules, 1966.
As a result, the subsequent action of allocating election symbols on or after November 26 by returning officers was deemed illegal in these cases.
