BENGALURU: In a big jolt to the BJP government in the state, the high court on Friday rejected its application seeking postponement of elections to the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP). It set a 10-week timeline for holding polls to the civic body’s 198 wards.
The court directed the State Election Commission to declare the poll schedule within six weeks from date of issuance of ward-wise reservation list. The government must publish this list within a month in pursuance of the June 23 notification on delimitation of wards.
The government had sought deferment of elections on the grounds that it should be held for the redrawn 243 wards, instead of existing 198, in view of the population growth.
Amendment to Act can’t be applicable to Palike: HC
The court pointed out that if the application for deferring polls to accommodate the redrawn 243 wards is accepted, it goes against the constitutional mandate of conducting timely elections.
Disposing of a batch of PILs in this regard, a division bench headed by chief justice Abhay Shreeniwas Oka pointed out that the recent amendment to the Karnataka Municipal Corporations Act, 1976, though a valid law, cannot be made applicable to BBMP whose term expired on September 10.
Along with the SEC, two ex-corporators, M Shivaraj and Abdul Wajid, and a Bengaluru resident Ravi Jagan had filed separate PILs, seeking timely conduct of polls.
During earlier proceedings, the government had contended that it’s not against holding timely elections and the court can monitor the process by stipulating timelines within which the new delimitation process and subsequent elections are to be held. According to the government, the KMC amendment has become a law wherein BBMP wards have been increased from 198 to 243 wards and this cannot be ignored.
As regards the delay, the state blamed the Covid-19 pandemic, stating it had created extraneous circumstances.
However, the petitioners responded that allowing a fresh delimitation process would further delay elections by more than a year as fresh reservation list and voters’ list have to be prepared. The court was informed that 2021 is a census year and this would give scope for more delay as new census data will have to be incorporated while preparing a new voters’ list.
“In some other municipal corporations also, elections have not been held within the time fixed by Article 243U of the Constitution. Therefore, it is unfortunate that the SEC is forced to invoke the writ jurisdiction of this court for compelling the state government to perform its statutory duties under Section 21 of the KMC Act of 1976,” the court said.
“In normal course, the court would have been justified in imposing exemplary costs on the government. However, we will have to take a judicial notice of the fact that the government is facing a financial crunch due to the lockdown and spread of Covid-19. It is only for that reason, we refrain from imposing costs on the government. In any case, the government will have to provide requisite funds to the SEC for holding of elections,” it said.