 Summary of this article
- The legal dispute centers on whether the Disaster Management Act can justify delaying constitutionally mandated Panchayat elections, whose tenure expired on January 31.
- The High Court ruled that disaster-related orders cannot override Article 243-E of the Constitution and directed the State Election Commission to hold elections by April 30.
- The state government contends that severe infrastructure damage, pending delimitation, and insufficient time to finalise reservation rosters make elections impractical, a move sharply criticised by the opposition BJP as anti-democratic.
For how long can the Disaster Management Act, 2005 be used to defer Panchayat elections in Himachal Pradesh, when such elections are a constitutional obligation on the state? This question is now before the Supreme Court after the Himachal Pradesh government challenged the High Court’s order directing that elections to Panchayati Raj Institutions and urban local bodies be held by April 30.
The dispute has deepened the stalemate, with the state government maintaining that elections cannot be conducted as long as the Disaster Management Act, invoked following severe monsoon-related disasters such as cloudbursts, flash floods and landslides, remains in force.
Himachal Pradesh witnessed its worst natural calamities in 2025, with significant loss of life, after which the entire state was declared a disaster-affected area. The Disaster Management Act, 2005 has remained in force since then.
The state’s advocate general, Anoop Rattan, confirmed that a Special Leave Petition has been filed in the apex court regarding this, which is likely to be listed for hearing shortly. A special leave petition has been filed in this regard by the Principal Secretary of Urban Development, the Secretary of Panchayati Raj, and the Chief Secretary.
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It was on January 9, the Himachal Pradesh High Court passed orders directing the state government and the Election Commission to conduct the Panchayat elections by April 30.
The orders were passed on a PIL raising the constitutional point that the elections to PRIs and urban local bodies can’t be deferred indefinitely on the pretext of the Disaster Management Act 2005, when all related functions of the government were being conducted normally.
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