Jharkhand High Court has chastised the state government over its failure to carry out municipal elections despite giving explicit directions in the past. The court, which has been unhappy over it, has sent out contempt notices to Chief Secretary Alka Tiwari and some of the key officials, and blamed them as responsible for what it termed as wilful non-compliance with its orders. This has now become a grave constitutional and administrative debate, and the court has ordered these officers to appear before it personally during the next hearing.
In April 2023, the tenure of municipal bodies in Jharkhand lapsed, and the dispute started. According to the constitutional requirement, elections of the urban local bodies were supposed to have been held before their term expired. The government, however, did not conduct elections, but it appointed administrators to manage these civic institutions. This action was not only going against the democratic processes but also deprived the citizens of the right to elect their leaders at the local levels. Elections did not take place despite numerous promises, and the High Court had intervened.
The state government had previously been instructed by the court to conduct municipal polls in three weeks. The order came in January 2024, but the government did not comply. In January 2025, the Chief Secretary delivered an undertaking that elections would be conducted within 4 months. Even this was disregarded, and it further destroyed the confidence of the judiciary. The state quoted procedures that it was still going on with respect to reservation of Other Backwards Classes in local bodies as the cause of delay, but this was not an acceptable reason in front of the High Court, which stated that constitutional mandates could not be suspended indefinitely.
It has been categorical that failure to adhere to its directives constitutes contempt and is a disregard of the rule of law. It noted that non-conduction of timely elections has seen civic bodies operating without elected leaders for more than two years, thus undermining grassroots democracy and hindering development. The operations of urban governance, including sanitation and local infrastructure projects, have been impacted since the decision-making process is still deemed as being centralized among the bureaucrats, but not the representatives of the people.
In view of contempt notices being served, the Chief Secretary and other officials are under the threat of legal penalties in case they do not justify the court. The subsequent hearing will be the critical one because the court will consider a potential penalty for high-ranking officials. The changing nature of the relationship between the administrative machinery in the state and judicial checks produces increasing tension, and there are also some basic questions as to accountability, governance, and local democracy significance in Jharkhand.
