Panchayati Raj: India
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SC upholds minimum education criteria for elections
The Times of India, Dec 11 2015
AmitAnand Choudhary SC upholds law fixing edu criteria for panchayat polls
In a landmark verdict, the Supreme Court upheld the Haryana government's law mandating minimum educational qualifications as a prerequisite for contestants in panchayat polls. A bench of Justices J Chelameswar and Abhay Manohar Sapre said education is an essential tool for a bright future and plays an important role in the development and progress of the country and elected representatives must have some educational background to enable them to effectively carry out their duties.
This is the first time that the court has upheld that minimum educational criteria can be fixed for candidates and illiterates debarred from the electoral arena. The order validates a similar law passed by Rajasthan, the first state to do so. The apex court rejected a bunch of petitions filed by some women contestants challenging the validity of the law mandating educational qualifications -Class 10 pass for men, Class 8 pass for women and Class 5 pass for Dalits -for contesting panchayat polls Haryana. The law also disqualifies those who don't have toilets at home and had not repaid agricultural loans or defaulted on electricity bills and other arrears to government authorities. The court upheld the law despite noting that a major chunk of the people would be disqualified from contesting the polls. More than 83% of rural wom en above 20 years and almost 67% of women in urban areas are likely to be disqualified under the law while 68% of the SC women and 41% of SC men would be ineligi ble. In a big boost to the NDA's sanitation drive, it also ruled that Haryana's decision to bar candidates without toilets at home from contesting panchayat polls is a “good decision“.
