Bombay High Court refuses to intrude in ward formation, says elections can’t be derailed

The Aurangabad Bench of the Bombay High Court on Friday (September 19, 2025) dismissed a batch of petitions filed by a number of people from throughout Maharashtra difficult the ultimate notifications of ward formation for upcoming Zilla Parishad and Panchayat Samiti elections. The Court dominated that interference at this stage would derail the election course of, which the Supreme Court has already directed to be accomplished inside 4 months.

The petitions had been filed towards the State of Maharashtra (via its Rural Development Department), the State Election Commission, Divisional Commissioners, District Collectors, Sub-Divisional Officers, Tahsildars, Zilla Parishads and Panchayat Samitis in several districts.

A Division Bench of Justices Manish Pitale and Y.G. Khobragade delivered a typical judgment within the petitions filed by residents from Hingoli, Ahilyanagar (previously Ahmednagar), Nanded, Beed, and Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar districts.

The Bench noticed that Article 243-O of the Constitution imposes a transparent bar on judicial interference in issues regarding ward formation and allotment of seats. The Judges clarified that such challenges may very well be entertained solely within the rarest of circumstances the place no objections have been invited or no hearings have been held, and even then, not after the election course of has begun.

“This Court, exercising jurisdiction below Article 226 of the Constitution of India, could be loath to evenly intrude with the ultimate notification in mild of the Constitutional bar to interference in such issues,” Justice Pitale wrote within the judgment.

The petitioners alleged arbitrary inclusion and exclusion of villages whereas forming wards for Zilla Parishad and Panchayat Samiti elections, claiming that objections filed by residents had both been ignored or rejected with out correct software of thoughts.

The Court, nevertheless, discovered that due course of was adopted. It famous that draft notifications have been revealed, objections have been invited, hearings have been carried out, and detailed causes have been recorded earlier than finalising ward boundaries.

“Proper listening to was granted and for the explanations recorded in writing, the objections have been handled, and the ultimate notification was issued,” the Bench noticed. Disputes over attachment or detachment of villages, the Judges added, have been “purely disputed questions of reality” that might not be examined in writ proceedings however solely via election petitions. 

The Court additionally referred to the Supreme Court’s May 6, 2025, order in Rahul Ramesh Wagh v. State of Maharashtra, which directed that long-pending native physique elections within the state should be concluded inside 4 months and that OBC reservations be restored to the pre-2022 framework. Stressing the urgency of polls, the Bench noticed, “Unless the petitioners are capable of make out a compelling case for interference, this Court wouldn’t be inclined to indicate any indulgence, as it might quantity to derailing the method of elections to native our bodies within the State of Maharashtra.”

Highlighting the bigger constitutional mandate of native self-governance, the court docket famous, “The Supreme Court has emphasised upon the necessity to maintain elections in a democracy, in order that native self-government, contemplated below the scheme of the Constitution, is achieved on the earliest.”

With the dismissal of all petitions, the State Election Commission is now free to proceed with notifying and conducting the long-delayed Zilla Parishad and Panchayat Samiti elections throughout Maharashtra.