Ward delimitation delay: Karnataka High Court warns govt of penalty

The Karnataka High Court on Tuesday cautioned the state government that it may have to impose a heavy penalty for failing to submit the list of caste-wise reservation and delimitation of wards within BBMP to the State Election Commission.

In the backdrop of the ensuing polls to the BBMP, the State Election Commission had approached the court seeking direction to the state government to complete the process of delimitation of wards and reservation for all the 198 wards and issue a notification. Hearing the plea by the Election Commission, the division bench of the high court comprising Chief Justice Abhay S Oka on Tuesday expressed its unhappiness over the state government’s delay.

The government counsel, appearing for the BBMP, submitted to the court that the term of sitting members of the BBMP council will end in September 2020 and the process of delimitation of wards is under progress.

“The same will be completed within a month. As the reservation list needs to be finalised as per the roster rules, the state government requires some more time to complete the process. The entire process will be completed by June,” the advocates stated.

Objecting to the BBMP’s stand, K N Phaneendra, appearing on behalf of the State Election Commission said, “The tenure of the sitting members of BBMP will end on September 11, 2020 and the polls need to be held before that. Also, the delimitation of ward does not require much time and on several occasions, the government was asked to issue a notification after finalising the reservation. The high court had previously ruled that the process of delimitation and reservation needs to be completed a year before the ensuing polls.”

The bench further observed, “The Election Commission is a constitutional body and it is the duty of the state government to hand over the list of delimitation of wards and reservation of wards to the commission. The government, rather than discharging its statutory duties, has created a situation forcing the commission to approach the court. Hence, the court may have to levy a heavy penalty on the government and the penalty be not less than Rs 10 lakh.”

Directing the state government to submit details on whether the previous elections were held based on the delimitation of wards as per the 2011 census and when did it commence the process of delimitation of wards during the next hearing, the bench posted the matter to March 3 for further hearing.