Bengaluru/New Delhi: The Supreme Court put a stay on the Karnataka High Court’s order regarding the conducting of the BBMP elections in 198 wards instead of 243 seats mandated under 2020 amendment of the law.
A notice was issued to the Karnataka’s State Election Commission (SEC) by the Supreme Court based on a petition filed by the Karnataka Government against the High Court’s order, which stated that the polls be conducted as expeditiously as possible.
The High Court’s order was in response to a petition filed by the SEC, M Shivaraju and others.
Seeking a reply from the SEC and the others, a bench comprising Chief Justice S A Bobde and Justices A S Bopanna and V Ramasubramanian said that there shall be a “stay of operation of the judgment and order passed by the Karnataka High Court” until further orders.
While Solicitor General Tushar Mehta appeared for Karnataka Government, other petitioners Baskar and Dr B R Ambedkar Dalita Sangharsha Samiti were represented by senior advocates Mukul Rohatgi and C A Sundaram, while the other side was represented by senior advocate Meenakshi Arora.
During the hearing, the petitioners pointed out that the Karnataka Municipal Corporation (Amendment) Act, 2020 was enacted to increase the seats from 198 to 243 wards in order to give due representation to the Scheduled Castes and other marginalised communities of a “large and growing city like Bengaluru”. They also challenged the SEC’s authority to question the validly of the amendment of the legislation by a writ petition.
It can be recalled that the term of the BBMP corporation expired on September 10 this year.
