BBMP polls: Karnataka gets 8 weeks to notify ward delimitation, fix OBC quota

The Supreme Court on Friday said a state government cannot run the local corporation and an elected body has to be in place as it gave eight weeks' time to the Karnataka government to complete the exercise for delimitation of wards and determination of OBC reservation in BBMP.

A bench of Justices A M Khanwilkar and Jamshed Burjor Pardiwala recorded a statement by Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, appearing for the state government that the entire exercise as per the new 2020 Act would be completed within eight weeks.

Notably, the term of the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) 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 city corporation.

Mehta said the process of determination is at final stage and the final notification will be issued shortly. He also said the exercise for reservation of wards would also be completed within eight weeks.

The top court also vacated its stay on elections of Vijaypura local body, and directed that the same timeline as issued in BBMP matter must be observed in this case as well.

The bench said the State Election Commission can initiate the process within a week thereafter for holding the polls expeditiously.

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.

The High Court ordered for conducting polls to 198 wards instead of 243 as mandated under the new law, the Karnataka Municipal Corporation (Amendment) Act, 2020, passed by the state government to govern Bengaluru.

In its plea against the High Court's order, the state government claimed that the new law was passed to increase the seats for councillors from 198 to 243 wards 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. It also claimed that the SEC had no authority to question the validly enacted legislation by a writ petition.