Calcutta High Court holds back the Kolkata civic polls until the ward delimitation challenge is decided

6 November 2026

A Division Bench of the Calcutta High Court has restrained the West Bengal State Election Commission from going ahead with elections to the Kolkata Municipal Corporation.
The bar holds until a single judge decides a petition challenging the way the Corporation's wards were redrawn.
West Bengal has raised the number of Kolkata Municipal Corporation wards from 144 to 209.
The Bench of Justice Sabyasachi Bhattacharyya and Justice Arjun Roy Mukherjee was sitting as a vacation bench.
It modified an order of the single judge, who had earlier declined to give interim relief against the delimitation.
The effect is that the civic election process stands deferred, and the challenge to the new ward map goes back to the single judge for decision.
The Court did not rule on whether the delimitation itself is valid.