The Supreme Court on Thursday directed the Karnataka government to come out with a notification on delimitation of wards at BBMP within a week.
A bench presided over by Justice A M Khanwilkar issued the order while telling the State Election Commission to complete the process for holding the polls in the municipal body of Bengaluru within a reasonable period of time as per the law.
The term of the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) already expired on September 10, 2019.
A new law was passed by the state Assembly in 2020 which came into effect in January, 2021, increasing the number of wards in the city corporation from 198 to 243 wards.
It was done in order to give due representation to Scheduled Castes and other marginalised communities in the municipal council of a large and growing city like Bengaluru.
On May 20, the top court had given eight weeks time to the Karnataka government to complete the exercise for delimitation of wards and determination of OBC reservation in BBMP.
On Thursday, the apex court's direction came on a petition filed by the Karnataka government and others. On December 18, 2020, the top court had suspended the operation of the High Court order of December 4, 2020 asking the SEC to hold the elections in BBMP within six weeks on 198 wards, without waiting for carving out of new wards as per the latest enactment.
(Published 28 July 2022, 09:16 IST)
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