Institute of Legal and Management Studies

The Supreme Court today granted an extension to the Karnataka State for holding the elections of the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP).

The State, which earlier told the Court that BBMP elections (which were last held in 2015) would be conducted by November, today sought time till December 15 for completing the ward reservation, etc.

A bench of Justices Surya Kant, Ujjal Bhuyan and Joymalya Bagchi granted the extension, after hearing Senior Advocate Dr Abhishek Manu Singhvi (for the State).

During the hearing, Singhvi submitted, "I am conscious of the timeline your lordships gave. This is filed only to say that 15 more days are needed, for a very valid reason. In 15 days, pari passu both will be done. We had a caste survey, and a lot of enumerators got delayed. Collating it is taking extra 15 days. Everything else is done".

Considering the submissions, the bench ordered,

"Having regard to the reasons mentioned in the affidavit filed by the state government, we deem it appropriate to grant 15 days more time in the interest of justice. Consequently, let the delimitation exercise be completed by 15th November and the ward reservation, etc. shall be completed by 15th December."

To recap, the Court is dealing with the State's challenge to a December 4, 2020 decision of the Karnataka High Court, which directed the State Election Commission to hold elections of BBMP as expeditiously as possible by publishing election programme within six weeks from the date of publishing of final list of electoral rolls.

On December 18, 2020, the Supreme Court had stayed the High Court order. In 2022, it asked the State Government to complete the process of delimitation of wards for BBMP and to notify the same within a period of eight weeks.

In the December 2020 judgment, a Division Bench of the High Court had upheld the constitutional validity of Karnataka Municipal Corporation Third Amendment Act, 2020, which increased the wards in BBMP. However, it said, "It will have to read it down by holding that it will not apply to elections of corporations which ought to have been held as per Article 243 of the Constitution, before the Amendment Act came into force."

The bench directed the state government to publish final notification of reservations for 198 wards as per delimitation notification date 23 June 2020 within one month. The order was passed while hearing a batch of petitions seeking directions for timely holding of elections of BBMP. One of the pleas was filed by the State Election Commission.

The Karnataka government challenged the said order before the Supreme Court, contending that elections ought to be held to 243 wards instead of the 198 wards of BBMP as directed by High Court. According to the State, the Karnataka Municipal Corporation Third Amendment Act, 2020, which increased the number of wards to 243, was applicable to the elections.

Appearance: Senior Advocates Dr AM Singhvi and Mukul Rohatgi; Advocate Jagjit Singh Chhabra, Karnataka Advocate General Prabhuling Navadgi

Case Title: THE STATE OF KARNATAKA Versus M. SHIVARAJU AND ORS., SLP(C) No. 15181-15183/2020