Bengaluru: The State Government has filed an application with the Karnataka High Court seeking a three-month extension to notify the reservation of wards for the November 30 deadline fixed by a single judge to conduct elections to the Bruhat Bangalore Mahanagara Palike.
BJP MLA and Chief Whip M. Sathish Reddy filed an appeal to challenge the single judge’s decision to dismiss the case that challenged the delimitation of wards.
The appeal filed by Reddy and others was accepted on Wednesday by a division bench led by Chief Justice Prasanna B. Varale and Justice Ashok S. Kinagi, who also issued notice to the State Government, BBMP, and State Election Commission (SEC). However, a hearing has not yet been scheduled for the government’s application.
The government submitted an application after one and a half months had passed from the two months allotted by the single judge in the decision from September 30, 2022, to announce reservations by November 30 and one month to complete the election process by December 31, 2022.
The government requested more time, claiming that it would only announce new reservations after obtaining the panel’s report on how to represent the backward classes politically, while also taking into account the concerns voiced by the single judge.
Senior counsel Prof. Ravivarma Kumar stated in the appeal that the single judge failed to take into account the petitioners’ demand that the wards be divided inside the Assembly constituency rather than spread throughout the constituencies as required by Section 7(b) of the BBMP Act.
The petitioners were given an endorsement by a local BBMP Officer stating that the ward in question is spread over two constituencies, despite the officer’s lack of authority to do so, said Senior Counsel K. N Phanindra, speaking on behalf of SEC.
Prof. Kumar objected to this saying that the BBMP must respond and the SEC has no right to make submissions.
