Another plea filed against amended Panchayati Raj Act

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, January 22

The Punjab and Haryana High Court on Thursday fixed April 20 as the date of hearing a petition challenging Haryana Panchayati Raj (Second Amendment) Act 2020.

The petitioners contended that the representation of the Scheduled Caste (SC) provided in the Haryana Panchayati Raj Act, 1994, has been taken away through the new amendment.

In the petition placed before the Division Bench of Chief Justice Ravi Shanker Jha and Justice Arun Palli, Bhim Rao Ambedkar Dalit Samaj Vikas Samiti submitted if the amended Act wasn’t quashed and declared illegal and ultra vires, a position would emerge that the representatives of the SCs would be elected where their population was more than 10 per cent as the seats would be reserved for them. But in areas where the SC population was less than 10 per cent, there would be no reservation for their candidates.

“The doing away with the provision of rotation will result in no SC ever being appointed where their population is less than 10 per cent. The spirit of reservation was to uplift the SC, which is being taken away by the amended Act,” the petitioner submitted.