The panchayat elections in Haryana were put on hold on Tuesday as the State Government urged the Supreme Court to decide whether educational qualification could be an eligibility criteria for candidates aspiring to contest rural local body elections.
A SC Bench of Justice J Chelameswar and Justice Abhay Manohar Sapre was told by Attorney General Mukul Rohatgi that the Haryana Government would prefer the issue to be decided by the apex court, saying “we don't want a half-way house”.
“It is best to decide the issue one way or the other,” Rohatgi told the court, which fixed October 7 for commencing hearing on a bunch of petitions.
These challenge the amendment to the Haryana Panchayati Raj Act, providing for several eligibility criteria, including minimum educational qualification, for the candidates.
The State Election Commission too told the Apex Court that it could not go ahead with the election process on the basis of its September 8 notification and would require to issue a fresh notification as it agreed with the Haryana Government that the issue should be decided by the Supreme Court.
The Apex Court had on Monday asked Haryana attorneys to seek instructions from the State Government over dropping the contentious minimum educational qualification clause in the amended law. However, the State Government told the Apex Court on Tuesday that it was not willing to do so.
A day before, the SC had also expressed concern over State Government making law on the issue saying that it would bar a major chunk of the population from contesting election. It said that bringing such law would deprive more than 50 per cent of population from contesting election.
Notably, the State Election Commission had on September 8 announced three-phase elections to three-tier Panchayati Raj Institutions, including nearly 72,000 posts of Panchayat members, Panchayat samitis and zila parishads. The polls were to be held on October 4, 11 and 18.
The Supreme Court on Tuesday said that regular hearing on the matter will begin from October 7.
Based on a petition filed by the All India Democratic Women’s Association which said the law violated a candidate’s right to contest elections, the Court had stayed the law last week and issued a notice to the Haryana government seeking its response.
According to the law passed on September 7 by the State Assembly, while general candidates must have passed class X examinations, women and Dalit candidates are required to have cleared class VIII to contest the panchayat polls. Candidates should also not have a criminal conviction, no pending electricity bills or loan payments and a working toilet, the law had said.
There was strong opposition to the move to force educational qualifications for panchayat elections as it rendered hundreds of sitting panchayat members and aspiring ones ineligible from contesting.
Over 1.10 crore voters are eligible to vote in the elections to the panchayati raj institutions in the state, including 5,104,621 women.