The State government on Tuesday told the Karnataka High Court that law does not permit it to withdraw the notification issued on February 8, 2013, reserving the Mayor’s post in the Bruhat Bangalore Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) for the General category.
In its statement, the government, however, said that it can provide reservation to the Scheduled Tribe (ST) for the post of Mayor the court gives a direction to it in this regard.
It said that the reservation fixed for the post of Mayor and Deputy Mayor was done as per the earlier court orders.
“Since the matter [relating to reserving posts of Mayor and Deputy Mayor is pending before this court and that the [present] reservation was done as per the orders passed by the court in 2004 and 2011, law does not permit the government to withdraw the February 8, notification without the direction of the High Court,” the government said in its statement.
It was also pointed out that though the Mayor’s post was originally reserved for the General (Women) category for the 14th term, it was changed to General category in February 2013 as the number of city corporations was reduced to eight from nine with the Karnataka High Court in 2011 setting aside the city corporation status accorded to Tumkur.
Following this statement, Justice L. Narayanaswamy, who is hearing the litigations questioning reservation for the Mayor’s post, said that he would take up the petitions for final hearing on Wednesday.
