A day after the Supreme Court stayed the operation of recent changes in law that have made certain educational qualifications compulsory for contesting panchayat polls in the State, Haryana Government moved the Supreme Court on Friday.
The apex court has agreed to hear the plea on Monday.
In view of Thursday’s order, the Haryana Government rushed to the court and sought an urgent hearing on the entire issue saying the stay on the recent amendments in the Haryana Panchayati Raj (Amendment) Act, 2015 amounts to “virtually” staying the election process in the State.
The Haryana Government told the court that if it doesn’t vacate the stay on the law, then polls that start from October 4 will be cancelled.
Today is the last day of filing the nominations for the election and they will scrutinised on Monday, Attorney General Mukul Rohatgi, representing the Haryana Government, told the court.
He argued that though the court has not stayed the elections, but the stay on educational qualification clause had implied that polls can’t be held.
Mukul Rohatgi, appearing for the State, added such laws have been passed in Rajasthan also and the Supreme Court did not find it fit to stay them.
A bench comprising justices J Chelameswar and AM Sapre, which had on Thursday issued notice and sought State’s reply within for weeks, has now fixed the matter for hearing on Monday.
The court had stayed the provisions prescribing minimum educational qualifications for panchayat polls contestants after the petitioner alleged that the Act had discriminatory provisions that restrains persons from contesting elections on ground of educational qualifications.
The amended law fixes matriculation as essential qualification for general candidates contesting the panchayat elections, while the qualification for women (general) and Scheduled Caste candidates has been fixed at Class VIII.
However, in case of a woman candidate belonging to SC category contesting election for the post of Panch, the minimum qualification would be Class V pass, the law says.
The amended law was passed on the concluding day of the Monsoon Session of Haryana Assembly this September.
The lawyer for the petitioner had said that 83 per cent of Dalit women and 71 per cent women in general and 56 per cent men would be excluded from contesting the panchayat polls by this law, which affected fundamental rights of the candidates. The court was moved by CPI-M-affiliated All India Democratic Women’s Association, a petitioner named Rajbala and others.
The panchayat polls in Haryana are scheduled to be held in three phases on October 4, 11 and 18 this year. More than 1.10 crore voters are eligible to vote in the elections.
Elections would be conducted for 393 posts of members of 20 zila parishads, 2,932 posts of 123 panchayat samitis, and 6,197 and 62,471posts of sarpanches and panches, respectively.