Polls must be held before municipality term ends: Karnataka HC

The Karnataka High Court, which directed the state government to hold elections to 198 wards of the BBMP held that the constitutional mandate under clause 3 (a) of Article 243U of holding elections of a municipality before its term expires must be followed strictly.

The high court directed the state government to publish the reservation notification in one month from the date of the order. "If the finalisation of voters’ list is delayed, the election must be held as per existing voters’ list. The SEC should not yield to a situation created by the vested interests for delaying the elections," the court said.

The PILs were filed by SEC, two former corporators M Shivaraj and Abdul Wajid and a resident Ravi Jagan. The state government argued that a validly constituted legislation (amendment to KMC Act) could only be struck down on limited grounds such as lack of legislative competence, violation of fundamental rights and if found to be "manifestly arbitrary". The government submitted that it cannot be directed to ignore a law validly enacted by the state legislature.

The petitioners argued that allowing a fresh delimitation process would further delay the conduct of the elections as a fresh reservation list and voters list will have to be prepared. The counsel appearing for the petitioners argued that the year 2021 being a census year, fresh delimitation would cause more delay.

The court said it refrained from imposing costs on the government after taking judicial note of the fact that the state government is facing financial crunch due to Covid-19 situation.