The Jaipur Bench of Rajasthan High Court on Thursday refused to stay the Ordinance fixing minimum qualification for contesting the Panchayati Raj Institutions (PRIs) elections and put on hold the notification for electing local bodies, saying it did not want to interfere in the process of constitution of Panchayats.
The petitioners which include the candidates who have been disqualified under the new eligibility, now plan to file a Special Leave Petition in the Supreme Court.
The Court will, however, hear on March 2, a bunch of petitions related to the Constitutional validity of the amendment to section 19 of the Rajasthan Panchayat Raj Act 1994 which fixes Class VII as the minimum qualification for the contesting elections for Zila Parishad sarpanch which is relaxed to Class V in the case of Scheduled Areas, and Class X for contesting the Zila Parishad and Panchayat Samiti elections.
Educational qualification is not the criteria in the elections at any level and Rajasthan is the first State to have introduced minimum qualification criteria.
The Bench of acting Chief Justice Sunil Ambwani and Prakash Gupta observed that “neither the petitioners nor the respondents have placed sufficient data before us, to form any final opinion as to whether the Ordinance is discriminatory as it will exclude a large section of the population from taking part in the elections of the Panchayati Raj Institutions. Both, the petitioners and the respondents, have produced a large number of papers without sufficient opportunity of collection of the datas and the other side to reply. The State government also does not appear to have sufficient opportunity to collect the datas, to defend the object of the Ordinance.''
The petitioners had claimed that it would take away the rights of the people, particularly f women, as in many segments a majority of them have no education. The Supreme Court had on January 5 refused to take up petitions challenging the Ordinance, directing the petitioners to go before the High Court.
The petitions claimed that 80 per cent of the State's rural electorate would not be able to contest the polls as they would not meet the norms and about 95 per cent women electorate would be disqualified. They also claimed that of the current block members, the Ordinance would render ineligible around 3,800 of the 5,000 panchayat samiti members and similarly disqualift 550 of the 1,000 zila parishad members. The petitioners also said that the Ordinance violated the Constitution as it deprives the people to contest elections.
With the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) having an overwhelming majority in the Rajasthan Assembly, the Ordinance will be passed and enacted as law without any hurdles. The petition to challenge the Ordinance had been filed by social activists, affected persons and was backed by the Congress.
The Rajasthan government had promulgated an Ordinance on December 20 last year for prescribing minimum qualification for contesting the PRIs elections and announced the elections on December 24. The new panchayats have to be constituted by the end of this month.
Visibly upset over the court decision, Norati Bai and Kamla Meghwal, two present sarpanch from Ajmer, who were among the petitioners said the decision would exclude 95 per cent of women from contesting elections. “There are no schools even up to Class V in Scheduled Tribe areas, how does the government expect to find educated candidates,'' Norati Bai sought to know. She said they would continue to contest the Ordinance.
