HP High Court Bars MLAs From Voting In Municipal President, Vice-President Elections; Says They Have No Such Right Under Law
The Himachal Pradesh High Court has held that ex-officio members, including Members of the Legislative Assembly (MLAs), do not possess a right to vote in elections for the offices of President and Vice-President of Municipal Councils and Nagar Panchayats.
Passing an interim order, the Court observed that the Himachal Pradesh Municipal Act, 1994 and the Himachal Pradesh Municipal Election Rules, 2015 expressly and impliedly exclude ex-officio members from the electoral process for these posts.
Referring to Rule 2(d), Rules 88 to 92 of the Election Rules, and Sections 22 and 25 of the Municipal Act, the Court concluded that the statutory framework confines the election of municipal heads to elected members alone, and consequently directed that MLAs shall not participate in the ongoing elections, subject to the final outcome of the writ petitions.
Division Bench of Justice Vivek Singh Thakur and Justice Ranjan Sharma remarked that: "There is no specific right given to ex-officio members to cast vote for the election of President and Vice-President of the Municipal Committee. Rather, ex-officio members have been impliedly and expressly excluded from the election process of the President and Vice-President as evident from Rule 2(d), Rules 88 to 92 of the H.P. Election Rules and Sections 22 and 25 of the H.P. Municipal Act."
Background:
The dispute centred on whether ex-officio members of municipalities are entitled to cast votes in elections for the offices of President and Vice-President under Article 243R of the Constitution, the Himachal Pradesh Municipal Corporation Act, 1994, and the Himachal Pradesh Municipal Election Rules, 2015.
The petitioners contended that only elected municipal representatives could participate in these elections, whereas the State argued that Section 10(3) of the 1994 Act conferred voting rights upon ex-officio members, including MLAs.
In response, the State contended that restraining ex-officio members of municipalities, including MLAs from voting in the election of Presidents and Vice-Presidents would effectively amount to staying a valid statutory provision. The State further argued that the provision had remained in force for over two decades and could not be questioned at this stage.
Case Name: Vandana Kumari V/s State of H.P. & Ors.
Case No.: CWP No.12658 of 2026
Date of Decision: 04.06.2026
For the petitioners: Mr. Anshul Bansal, Senior Advocate with Ms. Ruma Kaushik, Mr. Vikas Rathore, Mr. Nand Lal Thakur, Mr. Ajay Sipahiya, Mr. Mandeep Chandel, Mr. Anshul Attri, Mr. Piyush Dhanotia, Mr. Ankit Dhiman, Mr. Udit Shaurya Kaushik, Mr. Tarun Mehta, Mr. Ankit Chandel and Mr. K.K. Chauhan, Advocates.