The Supreme Court today agreed to consider listing a plea of the Karnataka government against the high court verdict asking the State Election Commission (SEC) to hold elections to 198 wards of the 'Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike' (BBMP).
A bench comprising Chief Justice NV Ramana and Justices Surya Kant and Hima Kohli was informed that the 5-year term of the civic body expired in September last year and there was an urgency as the poll process had been stayed.
"Send the file in my chamber. We will see at 1.00 pm," the CJI said when advocate Nizam Pasha said that a bench headed by the then CJI SA Bobde (since retired) had stayed the high court verdict of December 4, 2020 asking the SEC to hold the election within six weeks.
The state government had moved the top court challenging the high court order which directed the BBMP polls as per delimitation notification of September 23, 2020, instead of the 243 seats as mentioned in the Karnataka Municipal Corporation Third Amendment Act (2020).
The government said the high court judgment nullified the unanimous will of the state legislature, made up of the representatives of the people and had amended the Karnataka Municipal Corporations Act of 1976 to increase the number of wards in Bengaluru to 243.
The state government said the high court had handicapped efforts to "improve urban governance in one of the largest and most cosmopolitan cities in India".
The increase in number of wards was necessitated by the fact that the population and demographics of the city have undergone vast changes since 2009 when the number of wards was increased to 198, the plea said.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
Supreme Court Stays Kerala High Court Order On Elephants In Temple Festivals Delhi Imposes Complete Cracker Ban, Top Court Asks Haryana, UP To Do It Too Supreme Court Extends Stay On Defamation Case Proceedings Against Arvind Kejriwal, Atishi Police Case Registered Against Rahul Gandhi For "Injuring" 2 BJP MPs Pakistan Tries To Arm-Twist China Over Gwadar Port. The Plan Backfires. "Human Error" Caused Chopper Crash That Killed CDS Bipin Rawat: Panel Report Indian Navy's New Missile Warship INS Tushil Sets Sail From Russia To India Remittances To India As Much As Pak, Bangladesh Budgets Combined: 5 Facts France Mass Rape: Who Received The Longest Prison Terms? Track Latest News Live on NDTV.com and get news updates from India and around the world.