Apex court hearing on BBMP polls listed for April 27; CJI directs registry not to delete hearing date
BENGALURU:
There seems to be a ray of hope for aspiring BBMP corporators with the next hearing in the Supreme Court on the long-delayed civic elections scheduled for April 27.
The Supreme Court website mentioned the tentative scheduled hearing on April 27, while Chief Justice of India NV Raman has by a recent order directed the registrar not to delete the matter from the listing. “The registry is directed not to delete this matter from the notified date,” the CJI has directed.
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Senior Supreme Court counsel SN Bhat, who is representing Ravi Jagan, mentioned the matter before the CJI on March 29 and urged an early hearing as elections to BBMP are already delayed. Thereupon, the registry was directed not to delete the matter from the notified date.
HC’s caveat
Earlier, the Karnataka High Court had on December 4 last year upheld the validity of the Karnataka Municipal Corporations (Third Amendment) Act, 2020. The amended Act had raised the number of wards in Bengaluru city from 198 to 243.
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The amendment was challenged before the Karnataka HC, which upheld the law with a caveat that it would not apply to elections of those corporations where elections had become due prior to the amendment.
“The High Court has directed the state to conduct elections in a manner which is contrary to a validly and unanimously enacted piece of legislation,” the petition filed by the Karnataka government had said.
