UP weighs Supreme Court appeal after High Court orders village polls within three months

The Uttar Pradesh government is expected to consider going to the Supreme Court after the Allahabad High Court ordered it to hold elections to village councils across the state within three months, a timetable officials say cannot be met with the census and the 2027 assembly election bearing down.

A division bench of Justices Ajit Kumar and Garima Prasad gave the ruling in open court on Wednesday afternoon after a hearing of about three hours. It told the state government and the State Election Commission to hold the three-tier panchayat polls under the present framework, using the existing 27% reservation for Other Backward Classes.

What the court decided

The petitions, led by Imtiaz Hussain and others from Prayagraj, had challenged the government’s decision to make outgoing gram pradhans the administrators of their villages once their five-year terms ran out. The petitioners relied on Article 243E of the Constitution, which caps a panchayat’s term at five years from its first meeting.

The bench upheld the administrator arrangement and dismissed the challenge to the law itself, so the pradhans keep their posts until fresh elections are held. But it refused to let the polls drift. The OBC commission set up to work out backward-class reservation can carry on, the court said, but the election will not wait for it.

The State Election Commission told the court it was ready, having published the panchayat voter list on 10 June, and said the government had not made the arrangements it needed. The state had cited delimitation in its orders of 25 and 26 May, which put off the polls and kept the pradhans in charge under the UP Panchayat Raj Act, 1947.

Why the government is uneasy

Gram pradhans’ terms ended on 25 May, and block pramukhs and zila panchayat chairpersons were made administrators in July. Officials point to a crowded calendar: the second phase of the census in the state runs from 1 December 2026 to 4 January 2027, examinations fall in the same months, and notification for the assembly election is expected early in January.

The dedicated backward class commission, constituted on 20 May under a Supreme Court order, has covered 42 of the state’s 75 districts and its six-month term ends on 20 November. Its chairman, Ram Autar Singh, said it would decide its next steps after studying the order, and could split into two or three teams to finish the remaining 33 districts if asked to report early.

Panchayati Raj Minister Om Prakash Rajbhar was guarded. He said the government had not yet read the order and would study it before deciding anything, and cautioned against drawing hasty conclusions. “Respecting the court’s decision is the duty of all of us,” he said.

What happens next

If the order stands, the panchayat polls would fall just before the assembly contest, giving every party in the state a rehearsal on the ground. An appeal to the Supreme Court would put that timetable on hold until the court hears it. The government has not announced a decision.