Jharkhand civic polls to be completed by March, SEC submits schedule to High Court

Ranchi- Elections for all 48 municipal corporations and urban local bodies in Jharkhand, pending for a long time, are expected to be completed by March next year. The Hemant Soren-led government informed the High Court on Monday that all arrangements for holding the polls are ready.

The State Election Commission (SEC) also presented a sealed timeline before the High Court during Monday’s hearing.

The state government told the court that it has finished all required procedures and submitted necessary documents — including OBC reservation data and population statistics — to the Commission.

Advocate General Rajiv Ranjan stated before the bench that the SEC does not need any additional information from the government.

The SEC informed the court that it would require at least eight weeks to finish preparations. After this, the notification can be issued, and the election process completed within 45 days.

Noting this, the High Court directed the Commission to conduct the polls according to the submitted schedule. The next hearing will take place on March 30.

The instructions came during the hearing of a contempt petition filed by Roshni Khalkho and Reena Kumari, who sought enforcement of the court's earlier directive to conduct timely civic polls.

Advocate Vinod Kumar Singh represented the petitioners, while Advocate Sumit Gadodia appeared for the SEC.

The SEC also confirmed that all government formalities have been completed and that it will now proceed with issuing the notification and beginning the election process.

The terms of all municipal bodies in Jharkhand ended in April 2023. Elections scheduled for April 27, 2023, were postponed because the “triple test” process for fixing OBC reservation quotas was not completed.

Since then, all municipal corporations, councils, municipalities, and nagar panchayats have been run by government-appointed administrators, with no elected representatives for more than two years.

No municipal election has been held in the state since 2023.

With inputs from IANS