The Nagpur Bench of the Bombay High Court on Tuesday postponed the counting of votes and declaration of results for the municipal council, nagar parishad and nagar panchayat elections in Maharashtra from December 3 to December 21, Bar and Bench reported.

The directive came while voting was underway for 264 municipal councils and nagar panchayats in the state.

Last week, the State Election Commission rescheduled polls in 24 local bodies to December 20 after identifying irregularities related to withdrawal timelines and symbol allocation, PTI reported.

On Tuesday, a division bench of Justices Anil S Kilor and Rajnish R Vyas said that declaring results in phases would “materially influence” voting and the outcome of the second leg of elections, Bar and Bench reported. The court held that the results for all phases must be declared together.

The bench also directed that the Model Code of Conduct remain in force until the results are declared and prohibited the conduct of exit polls till December 20.

The order came on at least 10 petitions seeking simultaneous declaration of results for the local body elections.

The petitioners had argued that announcing results separately for each phase would compromise the fairness of the process, Bar and Bench reported.

“The decision [of phase-wise results] has a direct effect of creating a two-tier electoral process within the same municipal council and further conferring an undue political and psychological advantage upon candidates in the remaining wards who will be contesting against the background of an already declared Council composition,” Bar and Bench quoted the petitioners as saying.

The petitioners said that phased declarations violate the fundamental principle of free and fair elections and the requirement of a level playing field for all candidates.

Similar petitions have also been filed before the Aurangabad Bench and the Kolhapur Circuit Bench of the High Court, though no orders have been passed yet in those cases.