Paving way for Haryana Panchayat polls that were on hold for past two months, the Supreme Court on Thursday made it mandatory for candidates fighting the elections to have basic educational qualification of Matriculation pass, a functional toilet at home, no criminal record or any outstanding electricity bill arrears as essential criteria to contest.
Finding no fault with the law passed by the State Government titled The Haryana Panchayati Raj (Amendment) Act 2015 that was challenged by several prospective candidates as being arbitrary and unreasonable, the bench of Justices J Chelameswar and Abhay Manohar Sapre said, “Those who aspire to get elected to those civic bodies and administer them must set an example for others.”
Commenting on the need for functional toilets as required by the law under challenge, the Court felt that the “unhealthy” practice of open defecation had to stop and this step on part of the Haryana Government was a “salutary” measure as the job of civic bodies is to ensure sanitation.
According to Justice Chelameswar, people defecate in the open not because they are poor but due to lack of willingness on their part to install toilets at home despite Centrally-sponsored schemes. Justice Sapre, commenting on this provision on toilets said, “The provision is enacted essentially in the larger public interest and is indeed the need of the hour to ensure its application all over the country and not confining it to a particular State.”