SC extends B’luru civic polls deadline to Dec 31

THe sublime margaret court on fri extended the deadline for completing the long-pending elections to Bengaluru’s local bodies, allowing the mysore regime and the state election commission (SEC) time till December 31, 2026 to conclude the civic polls.Within hours of the order, chief minister D K Shivakumar said the state would use the extended timeline not only to hold elections to the Greater Bengaluru Authority’s five city corporations but also to complete polls to all pending local bodies before the end of the year. A bench led by Chief Justice of India Surya Kant, also comprising justices Joymalya Bagchi and V Mohana, accepted the state’s plea that the ongoing special intensive revision (SIR) of electoral rolls had rendered it impossible to meet the earlier deadline of August 31 fixed by the court.Senior advocate Kapil Sibal, appearing for the Karnataka government, submitted that the electoral roll revision was underway and the final voters’ list would be published only in November.“SIR is underway and the roll will be finalised only in November. Elections cannot take place by the August 31 deadline, as mandated by this court,” Sibal told the bench. The counsel appearing for the SEC supported the state’s request for extension. Accepting the submissions, the bench observed that the SIR exercise was in progress and ordered: “SIR in the State of Karnataka is undergoing and the final list will be published only in November. Let the elections be completed by December 2026.”The latest extension comes despite the Supreme Court having, as recently as May, extended the deadline from June 30 to August 31 while making it “amply clear” that no further extension would be granted. The civic elections have remained pending since the term of the erstwhile Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) council ended in September 2020. The Supreme Court has been monitoring the process since the Karnataka government challenged a 2020 high court judgment directing the SEC to conduct the polls expeditiously.Speaking to reporters, Shivakumar said the government had no intention of delaying the exercise despite the revised schedule.“Today there was a big decision in the Supreme Court on the local body elections of Bangalore GBA... We, at no point of time, will postpone it,” he said.He added: “We will complete not only this election, all the Zilla Panchayat, Taluk Panchayat, Gram Panchayat and all the municipal corporations. I will see that by this December all the elections will be completed. My duty is to see that all the young new people are given an opportunity.”The order came after a bench comprising Chief Justice of India Surya Kant and Justices Joymalya Bagchi and V Mohana was informed that Karnataka’s electoral roll revision was still underway.Senior Advocate Kapil Sibal, appearing for the Greater Bengaluru Authority, told the court that the revision would be completed in November and sought additional time to conduct the elections.Bengaluru has not had an elected municipal council for nearly six years. Since the BBMP council’s term ended in September 2020, the city’s civic administration has remained under government-appointed officials.