Election petitions must be decided on the basis of material on record: Supreme Court

The Supreme Court has observed in an order that election petitions challenging poll results must be decided by courts on the material on record.

A Bench headed by Justice Vikram Nath recently said it was impermissible to stall proceedings until fresh evidence, if any, was unearthed.

The order was based on an appeal challenging a February 2025 Punjab and Haryana High Court order.

The case concerned elections to the post of sarpanch of gram panchayat Khalila Majra at Panipat held in November 2022.

The appellant and the winning candidate both secured 302 votes and the latter was declared the winner in a draw of lots.

Following a round of litigation before the lower court and the election tribunal, the High Court pronounced a verdict remanding the dispute to the lower court for recording and getting the expert evidence.

Setting aside the High Court verdict, the apex court concluded that the “High Court ought not to have issued directions for leading evidence, as the election petition is to be decided on the basis of evidence available on record as may be led by the parties”.

“The appeal ought to have been decided on the basis of the material available before it and there could not have been such sweeping directions to call for witnesses and expert evidence when neither of the parties had raised any such issue before the tribunal,” the Supreme Court observed.