A division bench of the Calcutta High Court on Wednesday, 14 October 2026, directed the West Bengal Election Commission (WBEC) to erase old data stored in electronic voting machines (EVMs) used in previous elections, clearing the way for their reuse in upcoming urban civic body polls across the state. The order covers elections to several municipal bodies, including the Kolkata Municipal Corporation (KMC) and the Howrah Municipal Corporation.

Key Carve-Outs in the Order

The bench — comprising Chief Justice Ravindra Vithalrao Ghuge and Justice Om Narayan Rai — explicitly directed that old EVM data must not be erased in the case of three specific wards of the KMC and the Contai municipality in East Midnapore district. These wards remain subject to separate legal proceedings.

State Additional Advocate General Bilabial Bhattacharya informed the bench on Wednesday that the Supreme Court's stay order applied only to certain wards under the Contai municipality, while specific wards in other municipalities were still under the consideration of the Calcutta High Court itself. The division bench factored this distinction into its directive.

Why the WBEC Approached the Court

Several EVMs had been preserved over time due to pending litigation surrounding past urban civic body elections. With the WBEC facing a shortage of available EVMs, the commission approached the High Court seeking permission to delete old data from the preserved machines and redeploy them for the forthcoming polls.

At a prior hearing on 12 October, the Chief Justice's bench had queried the WBEC on two counts: whether old EVM data could be saved to a hard disk, and whether deletion was a necessary precondition for reuse. The commission confirmed that deletion was technically feasible and procedurally required before the machines could be used again.

Timeline for the Upcoming Polls

Urban civic body elections across West Bengal are scheduled to be held in November 2026, with results expected to be declared in December 2026. Wednesday's order effectively unblocks the EVM inventory the WBEC needs to conduct those polls, barring the machines tied to the three KMC wards and Contai municipality.

Broader Context

West Bengal's municipal election cycle has been punctuated by repeated legal challenges, with EVMs from multiple past polls impounded as evidence in ongoing cases. This is not the first time the WBEC has had to seek judicial clearance to release election hardware from court-ordered holds. The Commission's EVM inventory constraints reflect the cumulative weight of unresolved electoral litigation in the state — a pattern that critics argue underlines the need for faster disposal of election-related cases.

With the November poll schedule now intact, attention shifts to whether the three KMC wards and Contai municipality will see their cases resolved before election day.