Bengaluru civic polls: SC accedes to govt's request, grants 8 weeks' time

BENGALURU: In a big relief for the Karnataka government, the Supreme court on Friday acceded to its request and granted eight weeks' time to issue necessary notifications pertaining to the delimitation of wards and reservation for election to the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP).
A bench comprising justice A M Khanwilkar and justice JB Pardiwala passed the order after hearing solicitor general Tushar Mehta, who appeared for the state government.
Fixing the date of further hearing on July 22, the SC bench also directed the State Election Commission (SEC) to initiate the preparatory exercise for holding the election within one week from the date of notification pertaining to the delimitation of wards and reservation, whichever is later.
During the hearing, Tushar Mehta informed the court that the BBMP Act has come into force, effective from January 11,2021 and as a consequence,the state government has set up delimitation commission for the purpose of delimitation of 243 wards and also a separate commission for determining the reservation , including the ratio to be provided for OBC category.
He submitted that the work pertaining to delimitation of wards is in the final stage and added that to be on the safer side,at least eight weeks time needs to be granted to the state government.
He also assured the court that the separate commission appointed for the purpose of determining reservation will also complete its exercise by that time.
It may be recalled that on December 18, 2020, the Supreme court had stayed the December 4, 2020 order passed by the Karnataka high court wherein the State Election Commission (SEC) was directed to conduct the election to 198 wards, instead of 243 wards as desired by the state government.
The state government and several others had challenged the decision of the high court.