Supreme Court extends deadline for GBA civic polls to August 31, rejects Karnataka govt’s September push

BENGALURU: The long-pending elections to the five city corporations under the Greater Bengaluru Authority (GBA) will now have to be completed by August 31 after the Supreme Court on Wednesday granted Karnataka a two-month extension from its earlier June 30 deadline. The state government had sought time till September 30, citing administrative constraints, but the apex court declined the request and fixed August-end as the final timeline.

The Supreme Court had earlier directed that elections to the newly created city corporations replacing the erstwhile BBMP framework be completed by June 30 as part of Bengaluru’s civic restructuring under the GBA model. However, during Wednesday’s hearing, the state government informed the court that election preparations were facing delays due to manpower shortages and parallel administrative exercises, including the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) and Census-related work.

The extension comes despite the Karnataka State Election Commission (SEC) recently indicating that it was prepared to hold the elections within the original timeline. In a recent communication, the SEC reportedly stated that major preparations, including the publication of final electoral rolls for all 369 wards across the five city corporations, had already been completed.

The poll body had also maintained that it had not independently sought any postponement and that only the election schedule remained to be notified, even as the state government pushed for additional time.

While allowing extra time, the Supreme Court stopped short of granting the full extension sought by the state and instead fixed August 31 as the revised deadline for completing the poll process. The order is expected to put pressure on the government and the SEC to fast-track the remaining formalities for Bengaluru’s first civic elections under the Greater Bengaluru Authority structure.

The elections are significant as they will elect representatives to the five city corporations created under the GBA framework, replacing the single BBMP system with a decentralised civic governance model for Bengaluru.