Himachal: State election commission pulls up state for postponement of reservation roster
In a letter written to chief secretary, the state election commission has asserted that the urban development department has no legal mandate to alter a schedule issued by a constitutional authority.
The letter of the SEC came on Thursday, hours after the state's urban development department issued a letter postponing the finalisation of the ULB reservation roster due to the non-availability of updated Census data.
The elections in all the municipal bodies in the state except Shimla municipal corporation, are scheduled to be held this year. These elections are to be held in 7 MC's , 29 municipal councils and 37 nagar panchayats apart from this elections are also to be held in more than 3,600 panchayats. For the municipal elections, the election commission released the schedule for deciding the ward division, delimitation, reservation roster 2 months ago. According to this, reservation of all the wards has to be done by Friday, July 11. Complete information of the reserved wards has to be given to the Election Commission by July 15.
On Thursday, the Himachal government directed a postponement of the reservation process for ULBs due to absence of updated demographic data from the delayed national Census.
In an order dated July 10, 2025, the Principal Secretary (Urban Development) communicated to all deputy commissioners — except those of Lahaul-Spiti and Kinnaur — that 'due to the non-availability of latest data about the actual numbers of electors of Scheduled Castes (SC), Scheduled Tribes (ST), and Other Backward Classes (OBC) communities, resulting from the delay in the Census the implementation/finalization by issuance of the reservation roster for the ULBs elections shall be postponed until the latest Census data becomes available.'
The order, signed by special secretary (Urban Development) Saurabh Jassal, had instructed that no reservation notifications be issued or implemented 'until such time as the updated Census data is officially released.' Copies of the letter were marked to the secretary, state election commission and director, urban development.
However, the SEC has now firmly rejected this move, reasserting its sole constitutional authority over election-related processes, including delimitation and seat reservation.
In its letter dated July 10, 2025, the SEC said, 'Your kind attention is invited towards clause (g) of Article 243 P of the Constitution of India read with Section 2(31) of the Himachal Pradesh Municipal Act, 1994, and Section 2(38) of the Himachal Pradesh Municipal Corporation Act, 1994, which in unambiguous terms provides that 'population as ascertained at the last preceding census of which the relevant figures have been published' shall be used for the reservation purpose.'
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