On Friday, the Supreme Court division bench of Justices Aniruddha Bose and Vikram Nath agreed to hear a petition filed by the Karnataka State Election Commission challenging the Karnataka High Court's order granting the state government a further period of 12 weeks to complete the exercise of delimitation of constituencies and providing reservation to SC, ST, OBC, and other categories for all Taluks and Zilla Panchayats in the State of Karnataka.

The State Election Commission has requested that the High Court's order be stayed and that permission be granted to the State Election Commission to conduct elections to all Zilla and Taluk Panchayats in accordance with the State Election Commission's Delimitation Notifications dated March 30, 2021, and Reservation Notification dated July 1, 2021.

The Election Commission stated in its petition that the High Court had previously granted the State Government twelve weeks to complete the exercise of delimitation of constituencies and fixing of reservation to all Zilla and Taluk Panchayat constituencies in its earlier interim order dated 24.5.2022. At the time, the High Court considered the State Election Commission's argument that the tenure of the Zilla and Taluk Panchayats had expired.

The petition also stated that the Zilla and Taluk Panchayats have been operating under administrators for the past year, and that if another 12 weeks are granted without any conditions being imposed, the State Government will seek another extension, and that if legislative assembly elections are announced in the meantime, elections to the Zilla and Taluk Panchayats will be postponed indefinitely.

The bench agreed to hear the case the following week and asked the petitioner to send a copy of the petition to the respondents.

Case Details:

State of Election Commission, Karnataka vs. State of Karnataka and Anr.

SLP (C) No. 18135/2022