HC junks plea on BBMP polls

The high court on Friday disposed of a petition seeking announcement of calendar of events for the BBMP polls after the State Election Commission (SEC) submitted that it had already issued the calendar.

During the hearing, Additional Advocate General A S Ponanna submitted that the State government has filed a petition seeking clarification from the Supreme Court regarding the deadline for holding the elections, which will come up for hearing in the apex court on July 20, and appealed the bench not to dispose of the matter till then.

However, the bench, consisting of acting Chief Justice S K Mukherjee and Justice B V Nagarathna, refused to grant relief and observed that as per the direction of the Supreme Court in the Ponnuswamy case, once the election process has commenced, the court will not interfere.

K M Panindra, counsel for SEC, submitted that the Supreme Court had ordered on July 3 that the poll process should be completed within eight weeks.

“Accordingly, the deadline will conclude on August 28 and we will be completing the entire election process by August 26,” he said.

Meanwhile, the State government is planning to seek more time citing the move to restructure the BBMP. It is likely to inform the Supreme Court that the B S Patil committee on restructuring the BBMP has recently submitted its report.

Sources said the State government still has hopes that it would get some relief from the Supreme Court.