Jaipur, April 3 -- Rajasthan high court on Thursday issued a notice to the state election commissioner for violating the court's order to conduct the local body elections by April 15. A division bench of the high court presided over by the acting chief justice Sanjeev Prakash Sharma and justice Shubha Mehta isssued the notice while hearing a contempt plea 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 apex court on December 19, 2025 recorded the Rajasthan government's assurance that urban local body elections in the state will not be pushed beyond April 2026, while declining to interfere with a Rajasthan high court order that permits the polls to be held within that timeframe. However, in its latest petition, filed on March 18, Lodha highlighted, "Court directed that after the completion of the delimitation excercise, election of all local self bodies shall be conducted simultaneously and the entire election excercise shall be completed on or before April 15, 2026." He added, "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 wilfull disobedience of the direction issued by this court, thereby constituting civil contempt." Advocate Singhvi added that the court asked the advocate general Rajendra Prasad about the reasons of the delay. "However, he said that the state will file an application soon in the court seeking an extension of the deadline. But there was no discussion regarding the extension that was given to the OBC commission on Wednesday to complete their survey," Singhvi stated. The tenure of the Rajasthan OBC Commission has been extended till September-end, delaying the reservation process crucial for conducting polls. Urban development and housing minister, Jhavar Singh Kharra, told HT that the deadline was extended due to some errors found in the data. "The OBC commission sought the data from the local administrations who conducted a survey across all the wards, municipalities, panchayats. However, the commission found several errors and mismatch in the final data that was submitted by the administrations. Hence, they had directed a further survey which will take time." He further added: "The local administrations told the commission that they are lacking manpower and time to conduct this survey due to SIR work and upcoming Census work. Therefore, the commission asked for a six-month extension. The latest deadline is September 30 following which we will conduct the election."...