The Election Commission on Tuesday sought the Supreme Court to stay the proceedings before the Karnataka High Court on two petitions questioning validity of its decision to defer bypolls on 15 Assembly seats, reports DHNS from New Delhi.
The Karnataka HC has described as "not proper" the September 27 notification by the EC for postponing by-polls, scheduled on October 21, the poll panel said.
Maintaining that the notification was issued on oral observations by the top court, the EC sought an order to stay proceedings on two writ petitions filed in the HC by Venkatesa Setty and Dinesh Gundu Rao separately.
It said the HC had on Monday said, “The reasons mentioned for postponement of elections are not proper. EC can postpone polls only when there is a natural calamity or riots. Once elections are declared, those can't be postponed. The suspension of Model Code of Conduct is not correct.”
It pointed out the notifications on deferring polls were passed in order to allow the top court to conclusively deal with the petitions filed by the disqualified MLAs against the then Speaker's decision.
(Published 22 October 2019, 16:42 IST)
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