ZP/TP elections: Will complete delimitation soon, govt tells Karnataka High Court

Bengaluru: The government on Tuesday informed the high court that the delimitation exercise pertaining to zilla panchayat and taluk panchayat elections will be completed by the end of the day and a draft notification pertaining to reservation of constituencies will be issued in a week’s time.

A division bench comprising Chief Justice Prasanna B Varale and Justice Krishna S Dixit disposed of the PIL filed by the State Election Commission (SEC), reserving liberty to initiate appropriate proceedings in case of any breach in the assurance/undertaking given by the government.

At the hearing, Advocate General Shashikiran Shetty submitted that after giving a window period of 10 days for filing objections to the draft notification, the exercise of reservation will be completed two weeks thereafter by way of issuing final reservation notification.

The PIL was filed by the SEC in 2021, challenging the Karnataka Gram Swaraj and Panchayat Raj (Amendment) Act, 2021.

The petition contended that the amendment would delay the taluk and zilla panchayat elections which were already due. The Commission argued that the implementation of the amendment would delay the election process, in view of fresh delimitation exercise.