Local body elections: Karnataka High Court directs State to issue final reservation notification within 2 months

The Karnataka High Court on Thursday directed the State government to issue within a period of two months a final reservation notification in order to enable the State Election Commission (SEC) to conduct local body elections in the State. .The order passed by a Bench of Acting Chief Justice Sathish Chandra Sharma and Justice SS Magadum stated:"A status report has been filed by SEC...filed a list of local bodies in respect of which the term is already over in the month of June 2021 and it has been stated that a request has been placed with the state for notifying the reservation list. As the State has prayed for two months, time is granted for reporting compliance. List the matter on November 17.".Last year, the Court had registered a suo motu case after noting that local body elections were not being held as per the mandate under Clause (3) of Article 243 (U) of the Constitution.On May 17 this year, a decision was taken by the State government to postpone elections to zila, taluk panchayats and other municipal bodies beyond December 31, 2021, owing to COVID-19 pandemic..As per the status report filed by the SEC before the Court yesterday , the elections to 56 urban local bodies (ULBs), comprising city municipal councils, town municipal councils and town panchayats, are overdue despite the fact that the term of office of those bodies had expired on different dates, from May till August 2021..The Court was further informed that the SEC had been unable to declare the election schedule and conduct polls since it is awaiting the final reservation notifications for the wards of all 56 bodies across Bengaluru Urban, Chitradurga, Dakshina Kannada, Udupi, Belagavi, Vijayapura, Bagalkot, Haveri, Koppal, Ballari, Raichur, Yadgir, Vijayanagar, Gadag, Dharwad and Tumakuru districts..The matter will be next heard on November 17. .In August, the Court had directed the State government to give reasons justifying its stand to postpone the local body elections till December 2021..[COVID] If religious places are kept open, can’t they come to polling booths? Karnataka High asks State to justify deferring local body elections.Follow Bar and Bench channel on WhatsAppDownload the Bar and Bench Mobile app for instant access to the latest legal news.