Punjab and Haryana High Court refuses to order use of EVMs for Punjab local body polls

The Punjab and Haryana High Court on Friday refused to direct the Punjab State Election Commission to use Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs) for upcoming local body polls in the State.

The elections for the local bodies in Punjab are scheduled to be held on May 26 with the counting of votes scheduled to take place on May 29.

A Division Bench of Chief Justice Sheel Nagu and Justice Sanjiv Berry said despite the introduction of EVMs, Punjab Municipal Election Rules have retained the provisions relating to ballot papers and ballot boxes.

It said that the reason for it was quite obvious.

“In our society, where illiteracy, poverty and ignorance continue to plague a large section of society, the Rule making authority intentionally retained the provision of ballot papers and ballot boxes and did not omit the same, while introducing the concept of EVMs in municipal elections. There may be occasions where the Election Commission of India or the State Election Commission may have to revert back to the traditional mode of ballot papers and ballot boxes. As such, the provision for the same in the Rules were and are understandably retained,” the Bench explained.

The Court also said that it was too late for it to pass any direction with regard to the local body elections 

“It is now too late in the day for us to pass any order or issue any writ, since the election programme was published as early as on 13.05.2026 and these petitions came to be filed as late as on 18.05.2026 and 19.05.2026,” the Bench said.

The Court, however, also said that it might have got persuaded by the reliance on Supreme Court’s observations that  going back to the orthodox method of ballot papers may not be appropriate but the petitioners had approached it too late.

“Since the petitioners have approached this Court very late in the day, we decline interference in these petitions and extend liberty to the petitioners to assail the election process, if so advised, by way of an Election Petition,” the Bench said.

The judgment was passed on a batch of petitions challenging the State Election Commission's decision to use ballot papers instead of EVMs in the municipal elections. It was argued that the decision was in violation of Supreme Court judgments declining the petitions for use of ballot papers in elections.

However, the Punjab government as well as the State Election Commission questioned the maintainability of the petitions.

Senior Advocates Chetan Mittal, Amit Jhanji with Advocates Harneet S Oberoi, Mayank Aggarwal, Eliza Gupta, Avichal Sharma, Ketan Garg, Paramvir Singh Sunny, Pardeep K Bajaj, Navdeep Khokhar, Manik Moudgil, NK Verma, Mohit Garg, Ankush Verma and Sanket Gupta appeared for the petitioners.

Advocate General Maninderjit Singh Bedi with Additional Advocate Generals Chanchal K Singla, PIP Singh, Jastej Singh; Senior Deputy Advocate General Salil Sabhlok along with Advocates Kavita Joshi and Archana appeared for the State.

Advocate Aayush Sharma appeared for the State Election Commission.

Advocate Prateek Gupta appeared for the Election Commission of India.

[Read Judgment]