A court headed by Justice Vikram Nath recently said it was impermissible to stay the proceedings until new evidence was discovered, if any. File. | Photo credit: ANI
In an order, the Supreme Court said that election petitions challenging poll results must be decided by the courts based on the material on record.
A court headed by Justice Vikram Nath recently said it was impermissible to stay the proceedings until new evidence was discovered, if any.
The order was based on an appeal against a February 2025 decision of the Punjab and Haryana High Court.
The case related to the elections for the post of sarpanch gram panchayat Khalil Majra in Panipat, which was held in November 2022.
Both the appellant and the winning candidate received 302 votes and the latter was declared the winner in the draw.
After a round of litigation before the lower court and the election tribunal, the High Court issued a verdict remanding the dispute to the lower court for recording and providing expert evidence.
Irrespective of the High Court’s verdict, the Supreme Court concluded that “The High Court should not have issued directions as to the conduct of evidence as the election petition is to be decided on the basis of the available evidence which the parties may lead”.
“The appeal should have been decided on the basis of the material before it and there could not have been such sweeping directions to call witnesses and expert evidence when neither party had raised any such issue before the tribunal,” the Supreme Court said.
Published – 03 Apr 2026 22:32 IST
