Panchayat and municipal elections are run by your state’s State Election Commission, not by the Election Commission of India. That is why they can follow different rules, dates and even voter lists from Assembly and Lok Sabha polls, and vary between states.
Two commissions, two jobs
Article 243K of the Constitution vests control of the electoral rolls for, and the conduct of, panchayat elections in a State Election Commission, consisting of a State Election Commissioner appointed by the Governor. Article 243ZA gives municipal elections to the same commission.
The Election Commission of India works under Article 324, which covers elections to Parliament, state legislatures and the offices of President and Vice-President, but not local bodies.
An independent commissioner
The Governor fixes the commissioner’s conditions of service and tenure by rule, subject to state law. Those conditions cannot be varied to the commissioner’s disadvantage after appointment, and the commissioner can be removed only in the same manner, and on the same grounds, as a High Court judge.
The Supreme Court in State of Goa v Fouziya Imtiaz Shaikh (2021) held that the commissioner must be independent of the state government, and directed that no State Election Commissioner may hold a post or office under the Central or any State Government.
Five-year terms, on time
Every panchayat and municipality lasts five years from its first meeting (Articles 243E and 243U). The next election must be completed before the term ends or, after an early dissolution, within six months, unless less than six months of the dissolved body’s term would have remained. A body elected after an early dissolution serves only the rest of the original term, as a by-election winner does.
In Kishan Singh Tomar v Municipal Corporation of the City of Ahmedabad (2006), the Supreme Court held that the five-year limit is mandatory. It accepted that riots, a breakdown of law and order or a natural calamity could exceptionally delay an election, but a late roll revision is no excuse: the election should go ahead on the existing roll.
Reserved seats
Every panchayat and municipality reserves seats for Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes in proportion to their share of the local population. At least one-third of directly elected seats are reserved for women, including one-third of the SC and ST seats (Articles 243D and 243T). A similar one-third rule has since been written into the Constitution for the Lok Sabha and state Assemblies, though it has not yet taken effect.
Many states go further. In August 2025 the Ministry of Panchayati Raj told the Lok Sabha that 21 states and 2 Union territories reserve half of panchayat seats for women, and 17 states and 2 Union territories do so in urban local bodies.
Which roll you are on
States build local rolls differently. For Maharashtra’s municipal corporations, the State Election Commissioner divides the roll for each Assembly constituency into ward rolls, using the roll in force on a date the commissioner notifies. In Keralam (formerly Kerala), the panchayat roll is prepared separately under the state’s own law, and the State Election Commission takes enrolment applications online.
So being on one roll does not guarantee a place on the other. Our guide to checking the voter list covers the Election Commission’s roll; before a local poll, also check your State Election Commission’s list.
Why the rules differ between states
Under Articles 243K and 243ZA, each state legislature makes the law for its own local elections, and its commission issues orders under it, so dates, procedures and even the identity documents accepted at the booth vary. Keralam’s commission, for example, accepts a photo SSLC book, which is not on the lists the Election Commission has notified for recent Assembly polls.
Courts stay out while the election runs
The validity of a state law on drawing wards or allotting seats cannot be questioned in any court, and an election can be questioned only by an election petition under state law (Articles 243O and 243ZG). Orders made under such a law, such as one reserving particular wards, can still be challenged unless the law gives them statutory force, as the Goa judgment held. It also reads Article 243ZG as a hands-off rule from notification to result, unless an order would help the election along.
Deadlines can be short. In Maharashtra’s municipal corporations, a petition must reach a designated judge within ten days of the result, against 45 days in the High Court for an Assembly or Lok Sabha result.
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