Jaipur, April 14 -- The state government on Monday filed an application in the high court seeking an extension of the deadline for the conduct of local bodies elections. State urban development and housing minister, Jhavar Singh Kharra confirmed the development. "We have highlighted two challenges for the government to conduct the election by April 15 as the court ordered earlier and sought an extension," he said. According to the minister, the government informed the court that more time was needed to complete the OBC commission's survey of local bodies. "The first round of survey had certain flaws. Therefore, the commission has directed collectors to repeat the survey in many places. The second round of survey and finalisation of the report will take at least two to three months," said Kharra. He added that the state election commission's electoral roll revision process took place during the special intensive revision process. "However, after the revision, we found many names included in the SEC list which were dropped from the SIR list. It would be illegal if we allow those people to vote. Thus, we need to revise our rolls further, which is also a time consuming process," said Kharra. The minister added that the government sought an extension for six months till September. The development comes days after the court ordered the government to file their application for extension while hearing a contempt petition filed by the Congress leader Sanyam Lodha. "The court took cognisance of the state's delay to conduct the local bodies polls and also criticised them for violating the deadline set by both the high court and the Supreme Court to finish the election by April 15. The bench issued a notice to the state election commissioner Rajeshwar Singh and the election officer Rajesh Verma seeking their response on the contempt of the court's order in four weeks," said the petitioner's advocate Puneet Singhvi. The Supreme Court on December 19, 2025 recorded the state government's assurance that urban local body elections in the state will not be pushed beyond April 2026, while declining to interfere with a high court order that permitted elections to be held within that period. However, in his latest petition, filed on March 18, Lodha wrote, "Court directed that after the completion of the delimitation exercise , election of all local self bodies shall be conducted simultaneously and the entire election exercise shall be completed on or before April 15, 2026. However, the state election commission issued circular on February 20, 2026, prescribing a programme for preparation of electoral rolls wherein the final publication has been fixed as April 22, 2026, which is beyond the deadline fixed by the court. Since finalisation of electoral rolls is an integral part of the election process, the said schedule makes compliance with the judgement impossible and amounts to wilful disobedience of the direction issued by this court, there y constituting civil contempt."...