Shimla, March 11 -- Himachal Pradesh high court (HC) on Tuesday quashed the state government's decision to exclude Manlog Badog village from Hanuman Badog gram panchayat and merge it with Darlaghat gram panchayat in Solan district. The division bench, comprising justice Vivek Singh Thakur and justice Ranjan Sharma, held that the move was "manifestly arbitrary, unreasonable and irrational", while allowing a writ petition filed by the Nehru Yuva Club and Mahila Mandal of Manlog-Badog village. The petition challenged the January 27, 2026, notification issued by the state government to reorganise the panchayat boundaries. Questioning the state over why it was undertaking reorganisation, the HC bench said: "We fail to understand that when 5 years' term of panchayati raj Institutions has already expired and respondents are bound by mandate of the Constitution. to complete election process latest by May 31, then why respondents are venturing in large scale reorganisation and constitution of wards/panchayati raj institutions," the bench observed. The court warned that such exercises at a late stage may appear as delaying tactics and could lead to hurried decisions containing legal flaws that invite judicial scrutiny. Examining the record, the court noted that Manlog Badog and Hanuman Badog are contiguous villages located about 2-3 km apart and connected by a 2.5 km panchayat road. However, the state attempted to justify the reorganisation by calculating the distance between the two villages through a longer route via Piplughat and Damlanaghati. Rejecting this approach, the bench said, "Measurement of the distance between the two villages in this manner is definitely unreasonable and irrational. like measuring the distance between Himachal Bhawan and Haryana Bhawan via Connaught Place or calculating distance between Shimla and Solan via Bilaspur." The court also pointed out that the population of Manlog Badog is around 280, while gram panchayat Hanuman Badog has about 1,500 residents and Darlaghat about 4,500. "It is also unreasonable and irrational to add a village having a population of 280 to a gram panchayat having a population of 4,500 by excluding it from gram panchayat Hanuman Badog," the bench observed. Holding that the reorganisation ignored key factors such as contiguity, convenience, population and geographical realities, the HC set aside the January 27 notification of the state government. The court also quashed the related delimitation notification issued on February 2 and directed the authorities to issue fresh notifications regarding the constitution and delimitation of the concerned panchayats within five days....