BANGALORE: The High Court on Monday slammed the state government for disobeying the court order regarding conduct of BBMP polls. The court has dismissed the applications filed by the state government seeking one more extension of time to conduct BBMP polls.
While dismissing the application of the government, a division bench comprising Justice V Gopala Gowda and Justice BS Patil observed that the reasons put forward by the government for seeking extension were flimsy, frivolous and lame. There was no ground in the government’s contentions, the court observed.
The court directed the government to provide reservation list of 198 BBMP wards to the state election commission within two days and thereafter SEC should start the election process. The election should be completed on or before March 30, the court said.
“The principal secretary of the urban development department has disobeyed the court order, though the state election commission had written to the government asking for the reservation lists. The state has not responded.
It shows that the principal secretary is not willing to comply with the order of this court”, the division bench remarked.
The state has cited PUC and SSLC exams as the grounds for seeking extension of time. Similar grounds were rejected by the court in the last hearing. In the application, the state said that 6610 school buildings were needed to conduct the polls. But it did not mention the need for college buildings. The conduct of PUC exams is not at all concerned with BBMP polls, the court observed.
The reasons given by the state government are not accepted by this court. In spite of reasonable extension of time given on February 11 by the court, the state is not interested to comply with that order. The Supreme Court has also confirmed the order of the High Court on two occasions, the court said.
On many occasions, the court had given extension of time to the government to conduct the polls. On July 2, 2008, the court directed the state to conduct polls within three months. One year and seven months later, the state is yet to comply with the order, the bench said.
