Supreme Court extends Bengaluru civic polls deadline, directs GBA elections in December

3 min readNew DelhiUpdated: Jul 17, 2026 02:56 PM IST

The election to the Greater Bengaluru Authority was last held in 2015, and the tenure of the elected representatives ended in 2020. (Representational image)

The Supreme Court on Friday permitted extension of time for conducting elections to the Greater Bengaluru Authority (GBA) comprising five municipal corporations in view of the ongoing Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls and directed that it be held in December.

The court had earlier extended the time for the civic body elections from June 30 to August 31.

A three-judge bench presided over by Chief Justice Surya Kant took note of submissions that the final electoral rolls will be published after the SIR exercise in November.

Accordingly, the bench, also comprising Justices Joymalya Bagchi and V Mohana, said in its order, “it is directed that the elections to all five municipal corporations in all circumstances, be held in December 2026.”

The Karnataka government, the State Election Commission and GBA had approached the apex court seeking an extension of time to conduct the elections. Earlier, SEC Commissioner Sangreshi had announced that the elections to five city corporations would be held between June 14 and June 24.

Senior Advocate Kapil Sibal pointed out that the State Election Commission itself had said that if the polls are conducted now, many people will not be able to vote, which is why the poll body had made a similar request to extend the time.

The state government in its plea also cited logistical challenges in conducting the polls now in the wake of the SIR.

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It said that the administrative machinery and field staff are currently engaged in the house-to-house SIR enumeration exercise and will not be able to simultaneously handle the deployment for civic polls.

“Proceeding with elections on out-of-sync, unrevised rolls prior to the conclusion of the SIR would lead to dangerous anomalies where voters appear in one roll but not the other, which may degrade the sanctity of a free and fair election,” the state government’s plea said.

In its separate application, the GBA also said that conducting the elections now before the list is corrected would undermine the integrity of the electoral process.

The election to the Greater Bengaluru Authority was last held in 2015, and the tenure of the elected representatives ended in 2020.

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On January 12, 2026, the Supreme Court directed that the elections be held by June 30.