HC to govt: Issue quota, delimitation lists by June 12 to hold ULB polls

The High Court of Karnataka on Thursday directed the state government to issue the reservation and delimitation lists of local bodies to the State Election Commission in the next five days for conducting the elections to Urban Local Bodies (ULBs).

A division bench headed by Chief Justice Dinesh Maheshwari was hearing a petition filed by the State Election Commission (SEC), which had moved the court seeking directions to the state to issue final notification of delimitation of wards to 18 ULBs and notification of reservation of seats of all wards of 215 ULBs.The government counsel sought for three weeks time to issue the list on the ground that as there was no Urban Development minister and secretary at the moment, they are not able to issue the list. The counsel further contended that they could not issue the list earlier due to to model code of conduct that was in force in view of the Assembly elections.

The SEC contended that the petition was filed much before the issue of the model code of conduct and that the government had given an under-taking that the ward-wise reservation for 215 ULBs will be finalised by April 30 and an appropriate notification will be issued.

The SEC further stated that they have to announce the notification for the ULB elections before June 15 and the reservation and the delimitation lists have to be issued before that.

In the last hearing, the petitioner had contended that that despite several proceedings conducted by the SEC with the officials of the state government, the government has not taken any action with regard to completing the exercise of fixing the reservation of all seats of the 215 ULBs.

In response to this, the court asked the government to issue the reservation and the delimitation list by June 12.

The court adjourned the hearing of the case to June 12.