Supreme Court to consider hearing plea related to polls for Bengaluru civic body

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 Supreme Court on November 9 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 N.V. 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 p.m.,” the CJI said when advocate Nizam Pasha said that a Bench headed by the then CJI S.A. Bobde (since retired) had stayed the high court verdict of December 4, 2020 asking the SEC to hold the election within six weeks.