BENGALURU: The Karnataka High Court on Thursday set a timeline for holding elections to Urban Local Bodies. It issued notice to the state government and the State Election Commission (SEC) on a suo motu public interest litigation for not holding elections to 21 Urban Local Bodies (ULBs) even after the expiry of the term. Observing that it is a shocking state of affairs, a division bench of Chief Justice Abhay Shreeniwas Oka and Justice S Vishwajith Shetty observed that there is a constitutional mandate to ensure local self-governance and elections are to be regularly held every five years.
The bench noted that the Supreme Court held that elections should be held to the municipalities within the time as per the Article 243-U and under no circumstances they should be delayed. However, in various municipalities including BBMP, elections haven’t been held.
The elections of three corporations are due and similarly elections are not held to 10 city municipal councils, six town municipal councils and two town panchayats, after the expiry of the term, the bench said. It said that with regard to BBMP, directions have already been issued on December 4, for holding elections in a time-bound schedule. As regards Belagavi, reservation notification has to be issued. The SEC stated that the electoral rolls for Belagavi City Corporation are ready.
“We, therefore, direct the state government to complete the exercise of reservation and publish the notification of reservation within two months from today. The SEC should issue a calendar of events within 45 days from the date of reservation notification,” it ordered. The court also set a schedule for polls to Kalaburagi City Corporation, Ballari City Corporation and Hubballi-Dharwad Municipal Corporation.