BENGALURU: Elections to the five city corporations under the Greater Bengaluru Authority (GBA) have now been extended until December 31.
For the second time this year, the Supreme Court on Friday extended the deadline for conducting the much-delayed elections, pending since 2020. The elections, which were supposed to be held by June 30, were extended to August 31, which has now been further extended to December 31.
A bench comprising Chief Justice of India Surya Kant and Justices Joymalya Bagchi and V Mohana issued the order after it was informed that the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls was underway in Karnataka.
In its plea, GBA said that the entire administrative machinery and human resources of the five city corporations were fully engaged in the SIR exercise.
GBA's plea said that SIR is an extremely manpower-intensive exercise entailing house-to-house visits by the booth-level officers. It said the process requires day-to-day involvement of the complete supervisory structure involving other officers at all levels up to the District Election Officer, and noted that the authority faces severe logistical challenges.
Appearing for the GBA, Senior Advocate Kapil Sibal told the apex court that the SIR exercise was going on in the State and the electoral rolls will be finalised in November this year and sought an extension in the deadline to conduct the civic body elections.
Taking note of the submission, the bench said that in view of the fact that Karnataka is conducting SIR and the process will be completed in November, it directed that the elections to the five corporations be held in December.