A bench comprising Chief Justice of India Surya Kant and Justice Joymalya Bagchi directed the state government to publish the final ward-wise reservation by February 20, 2026, extending the earlier deadline of December 15. The court made it clear that no further extension of time would be granted at any stage of the process.

The directions were issued while the court was monitoring compliance with earlier orders concerning elections to the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) and the newly created municipal corporations within the Greater Bengaluru Area (GBA).

During the hearing, senior advocate Abhishek Manu Singhvi, appearing for the Karnataka government, submitted that the exercise of finalising and notifying ward-wise reservations would be completed within a month. Taking note of this assurance, the bench fixed February 20 as the final deadline for publication of reservations.

Senior advocate KN Phanindra, appearing for the State Election Commission (SEC), informed the court that the publication of the final voters’ list was scheduled for March 16. He submitted that the elections could practically be held only after the conclusion of school and college examinations, as educational institutions are required to function as polling stations and teachers are deployed for election duties.

Phanindra told the bench that the board examinations would conclude on May 26, and assured the court that the SEC would schedule the elections immediately thereafter.

Accepting the submission, the bench directed that polling be conducted as soon as the examinations conclude. “The elections in all circumstances shall be concluded before 30th June, 2026,” the court ordered, underlining that the timeline was mandatory.

The directions come amid prolonged delays in holding civic elections in Bengaluru, which has remained under bureaucratic and government-appointed administration since the term of the erstwhile BBMP council ended in September 2020.

Last week, the Karnataka government notified reservations for 369 wards across five newly carved municipal corporations in the Greater Bengaluru Area, a key procedural step towards conducting elections. The reservations span the General, Scheduled Castes (SC), Scheduled Tribes (ST), and Other Backward Classes (OBC) categories, with 50% of the wards reserved for women across all categories.

The elections will mark a significant expansion of Bengaluru’s municipal governance structure. Unlike the previous civic polls, which were held for 198 wards, the next elections will cover 369 wards across five corporations, an increase of 171.

The Karnataka government moved the Supreme Court against a December 2020 Karnataka high court judgment, which directed the SEC to hold BBMP elections expeditiously by publishing a poll programme within six weeks of finalising electoral rolls. The Supreme Court stayed the high court’s directions the same month. In 2022, the Supreme Court directed the state government to complete the process of delimitation of BBMP wards and notify the same within eight weeks.

In its December 2020 judgment, the high court upheld the constitutional validity of the Karnataka Municipal Corporation Third Amendment Act, 2020, which increased the number of BBMP wards. The high court had “read down” the amendment, holding that it would not apply to elections that ought to have been held under Article 243 of the Constitution before the amendment came into force.

The high court directed the state to publish the final reservation notification for 198 wards, based on the delimitation notification dated June 23, 2020, within one month. These directions were issued while hearing petitions seeking the timely conduct of BBMP elections, including a plea filed by the SEC.

The Karnataka government challenged the high court’s order, contending that elections should be held for an increased number of wards, 243 at the time, as mandated by the 2020 amendment, rather than 198 directed by the high court.