Polls to Bengaluru's newly formed municipal bodies can take place only after August 15: Karnataka tells Supreme Court

New Delhi: The Karnataka government has told the Supreme Court that the elections to the newly constituted municipal corporations in Bengaluru after the passage of the proposed Greater Bengaluru Governance Bill, 2024 can take place only after August 15, 2025.

In an affidavit, the state government gave details of the proposed actions in conducting the polls to the city municipal bodies.

The Supreme Court is scheduled to take up on Tuesday, February 25 the matter related to conducting polls for the 'Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike' (BBMP), whose term expired on September 10, 2020.

On December 18, 2020, the top court had suspended the operation of the High Court order for conducting BBMP polls to 198 wards instead of 243 as mandated under the Karnataka Municipal Corporation (Amendment) Act, 2020, passed to govern Bengaluru.

In its written response, the state government said the revised Greater Bengaluru Governance Bill, 2024 is expected to be placed before the State Legislature in the upcoming Budget Session, scheduled to start from first week of March 2025.

"Assuming that the Legislative Assembly and the Legislative Council clears this Bill and the Governor gives his assent by March 31, 2025, the Greater Bengaluru Governance Act will be gazetted immediately," it said, giving a timeline, subject to any other relevant developments.

As per the provisions of the proposed Act, it said, the state government by a notification has to declare the larger urban area of the city of Bengaluru and such other areas to be specified by the government, as the Greater Bengaluru Area.

Further, the Governor would have to establish such number of city Corporations having regard to the population of any area, the density of population, the revenue generated, the percentage of employment in non-agricultural activities, the economic importance, the infrastructural provisions available in the area and such other factors, it said.

As these notifications can be finalised only after obtaining suggestions or objections from general public it may be assumed that these obligations will be completed within a period of 45 days i.e. by May 15, 2025, the response said.

After establishing city corporations, for the purpose of election of councillors, each corporation has to be divided into wards on the recommendation of the Delimitation Commission. Based on the recommendation of the Delimitation Commission, the government has to publish a draft notification providing details of boundaries of wards and their names separately for each corporation. After considering the suggestions or objections on this draft notification, the government has to publish final notification. The process from constituting Delimitation Commission to publishing final notification may take another 60 days i.e., by July 15, 2025, it said.

Upon publishing notification delimiting the wards, the government said, it has to announce reservation for the posts of councillors as provided in the proposed Act, which may be done within a period of 30 days, as this also needs to be finalised after calling for suggestions/objections by publishing a draft notification.

"Thus it can be assumed that the state government can communicate delimitation notification along with reservation details to the State Election Commission by August 15, 2025 after which the election to the newly constituted city corporations shall be held," it said.

The government justified the proposed law for creation of multiple corporations in the city, saying Bengaluru has grown exponentially both demographically and geographically over the last two decades.

"The increasing demands arising out of the rapid organisation of Bengaluru and its surrounding areas has posed major challenges for civic authorities. As the city is set to expand even further, the present municipal government framework will find it even more difficult to respond to these concerns," it said.

Consequently, the government said, the quality of life in the city for all citizens will continue to suffer, more so with the looming challenges of climate change. The core challenges the city faces can be addressed only by decentralisation of power within the city and by bringing BBMP Act and other civic agencies together through an integrated governance framework, it said.