SC stays Karnataka HC's order for polls in Vijayapura Municipal Corporation

The Supreme Court on Wednesday stayed the Karnataka High Court's order for holding polls for Vijayapura Municipal Corporation by completing delimitation of wards within three weeks as per the previous arrangement under 1976 law.

A bench of Chief Justice S A Bobde and Justices A S Bopanna and V Ramasubramanian issued notice to the Karnataka government and others on a petition filed by Anand and others against the HC's order.

Advocates Rohit Sharma, along with Nishanth Patil, appearing for the petitioners, contended the State Election Commission had failed to discharge its constitutional duty to conduct polls before expiry of the term under Article 243U of the Constitution. The HC did not consider that its judgement would have effect of further delaying the elections due to erroneous delimitation done without considering effect of the 2020 amendment of the Karnataka Municipal Corporation Act, 1976.

The tenure of the Councillors had ended on July 14, 2019.

The petitioners were aggrieved that the delimitation exercise was not being done in accordance with the latest amendment to the Karnataka Municipal Corporations Act.

After hearing the petitioners' counsel, the court directed, "Until further orders, there shall be an ad interim stay of operation of the order passed by the High Court."

The court tagged the instant petition with along with a pending matter wherein the High Court order for conducting BBMP polls on 198 wards, as opposed to 243 seats as mandated under 2020 amendment into the law, was stayed on December 18, 2020.