The Supreme Court on Wednesday asked the Karnataka government the reasons preventing it from conducting the Bruhat Bangalore Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) elections at the “earliest”.
The query from Chief Justice of India H.L. Dattu came when the State government mentioned before a three-judge Bench led by the CJI its application seeking more time to hold the polls.
The court further asked why the State went to the single judge Bench of the High Court of Karnataka even after the Supreme Court directed it in May to hold the polls in three months.
“You are trying to postpone the elections,” Chief Justice Dattu observed, while fixing the State's plea for hearing on July 3.
The State government has sought an extension in the poll schedule to complete de-limitation of the wards and fix reservation as per the 2011 census. It approached the apex court after the High Court rejected its application to defer elections. The HC directed the State Election Commission to conduct elections based on the existing delimitation of the wards and using the updated electoral rolls.
On May 5, the Karnataka government had told the Supreme Court that it would hold elections for municipal wards within three months. Senior advocate Kapil Sibal, appearing for Karnataka, had then submitted that since the panchayat elections were on, polls to the municipal wards would also be held within 90 days.
With this, the government had climbed down from its earlier position that the polls would be held within six months.
Namma Bengaluru Foundation, an NGO, and several incumbent councillors had approached the apex court contending that the delay in conducting elections violated the constitutional limit of five years for holding municipal body polls.
You are trying to postpone the elections, says Chief Justice of India
