State to amend panchayat Act, HC told

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, August 28

Haryana Government, it seems, is determined to open a new chapter in its panchayati raj history by bringing in literates to run the system at grassroots level. Just about a week after the Punjab and Haryana High Court stayed the operation of a clause that made basic education mandatory for contesting panchayat polls, the state said it would soon introduce a Bill to amend the Panchayati Raj Act.

Once in place, it would include the clause for making educational qualification mandatory for candidates contesting the panchayat polls in the state.

A Division Bench hearing the matter was also told that the Bill would be introduced in the upcoming session of Haryana state Assembly starting from September 2. As the case came up for resumed hearing, a statement to this effect was made by the counsel for the state.

Taking a note of the state’s reply, the High Court adjourned the hearing of the case till September 14. The court also ordered the continuation of stay on the state government’s decision to make basis educational qualification mandatory for those keen on contesting panchayat elections in Haryana.

The developments took place on a bunch of petitions filed by Ved Wanti, Baljit Singh and other petitioners against the state of Haryana and other respondents through counsel Manjeet Singh, Sukhraj Singh Brar and other counsel.

The stay order by Justice Satish Kumar Mittal and Justice Mahavir Singh Chauhan was initially issued after the Bench was told that the government had not carried out a survey for determining the percentage of matriculate or middle pass.

The government, just more than a fortnight back, had decided to amend the Haryana Panchayati Raj Act, 1994, making it mandatory for candidates in panchayat elections to have basic educational qualification and functional toilets at home.

The court was told that Part IX of the Constitution of India dealt with the panchayats and its elections. Minimum educational qualification for a candidate for the post of sarpanch, panch, or member of block samiti or zila parishad was neither prescribed under Part IX of the Constitution, nor under the Haryana Panchayati Raj Act, 1994.

Moreover, survey was not conducted to ascertain “as to what percentage of the population in the state of Haryana was matriculate or middle pass”, before promulgating Haryana Panchayati Raj (Amendment) Ordinance, 2015, and inserting Clause (v) in Section 175 of the Haryana Panchayati Raj Act, 1994.