The amendments, which were upheld by the Supreme Court today, fixes various criteria including minimum educational qualification for candidates contesting panchayat polls.
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Haryana would be the first State in the Country to have educated panchayats. The introduction of such provision prescribing certain minimum educational qualification criteria as one of the qualifications for a candidate to contest the election has a reasonable nexus with the object sought to be achieved. “Also, the development of the villages would take place at an accelerated pace”, Mr Dhankar said reacting to the verdict.
The law fixes matriculation as essential qualification for general candidates contesting panchayat polls and Class 8 for women in general category and for scheduled caste candidates.
A bench of Justices J Chelameswar and Abhay Manohar Sapre said under the Constitutional scheme, every person, entitled to vote, is not automatically eligible to contest for every office as the Constitution itself imposes limitations on the right to contest depending upon the office.
“By setting such preconditions for contesting panchayat and local bodies elections, a large section of the rural poor have been excluded from their basic right to be elected representatives”, it said.
Among the other grounds for disqualification from contesting polls are failure to pay arrears to any primary agriculture co-operative society or agriculture co-operative bank, failure to pay electricity bill arrears and not having a functional toilet at home.
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The State Election Commission on Thursday said it will soon set in motion the process for conduct of panchayat polls after the Supreme Court upheld a new in Haryana mandating minimum educational qualifications as a prerequisite for the contestants.
