The Supreme Court of India extended the deadline for conducting long-pending elections to the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike and newly created Greater Bengaluru municipal corporations till August 31, while warning that no further extension would be granted thereafter.
The Supreme Court of India extended the deadline for conducting the long-pending elections to the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) and the newly created municipal corporations in the Greater Bengaluru Area till August 31.
A Bench comprising Chief Justice of India Surya Kant, Justice Joymalya Bagchi and Justice Vipul Pancholi granted the extension while making it clear that no further extension would be granted beyond the revised deadline.
The order was passed after senior advocate Abhishek Singhvi, appearing for the Government of Karnataka, informed the Court about practical difficulties in conducting the elections within the earlier time frame fixed by the Court.
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Singhvi submitted that the State was facing shortage of manpower because of ongoing Census-related work and the upcoming Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls in Karnataka. He further informed the Court that although budgetary allocations for the elections had already been made, the availability of sufficient administrative personnel remained a challenge.
While granting the extension, the Bench orally remarked, “You go and activate your machinery”.
Earlier, on January 12, the Supreme Court had directed the Karnataka government and the State Election Commission to complete the BBMP election process by June 30. At that time, the Court had also directed that the final ward-wise reservation list should be published by February 20.
The elections to the Bengaluru civic body have remained pending for several years after the tenure of the earlier elected BBMP council expired on September 10, 2020. Since then, the civic administration has been functioning under a government-appointed administrator who has been overseeing the day-to-day affairs of the corporation. The prolonged delay in holding elections has repeatedly come under judicial scrutiny before the courts.
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The present proceedings arise out of a challenge by the Karnataka government to a December 2020 judgment of the Karnataka High Court. In that judgment, the High Court had directed the State Election Commission to conduct BBMP elections expeditiously after completing the process of finalising electoral rolls.
The Supreme Court has since been monitoring compliance with various directions relating to elections for BBMP and the newly constituted municipal corporations within the Greater Bengaluru Area. The dispute over the elections is closely linked to amendments introduced through the Karnataka Municipal Corporation Third Amendment Act, 2020.
In its December 2020 ruling, the Karnataka High Court upheld the constitutional validity of the amendment legislation, which increased the number of wards under the Bengaluru civic administration framework.
However, the High Court had also “read down” certain provisions of the amendment and observed that they would not apply to elections that were constitutionally required to be conducted under Article 243 before the amendment came into effect.
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Subsequently, on December 18, 2020, the Supreme Court stayed the operation of the High Court judgment. Later, in 2022, the apex court directed the Karnataka government to complete the process of delimitation of wards for BBMP and notify the same within eight weeks.
As part of the restructuring process, the Karnataka government has already notified reservations for 369 wards spread across five newly created municipal corporations in the Greater Bengaluru Area. This represents a substantial expansion compared to the previous civic structure.
Unlike the earlier BBMP elections, which were conducted for 198 wards, the next civic polls will now be held for 369 wards across five corporations, resulting in an increase of 171 wards. The restructuring exercise has been projected by the State as an effort to improve governance and administrative management in Bengaluru’s rapidly expanding metropolitan region.
With the latest order of the Supreme Court, the Karnataka government and election authorities have now been granted time till August 31 to complete the long-delayed civic election process for Bengaluru.
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