HC seeks Har govt stand on plea against 50 % quota for women in panchayat polls

The Punjab and Haryana High Court on Tuesday sought the Haryana government's stand on a plea challenging a statutory provision for reserving 50 per cent seats for women candidates in the state's village panchayats.

A bench of Chief Justice Ravi Shanker Jha and Justice Arun Palli sought the state government's stand by April 20 on a plea by two former members Kailash Bai and Sneh Lata of various village panchayats.

The two women have moved court against the Haryana Panchayati Raj (Second Amendment) Act, 2020, which also confer village voters with a progressive and futuristic power to recall their Panchayat representatives.

Appearing for the two women petitioners before the court, their counsel Deepkaran Dalal argued that the provision to reserve 50 per cent of Panchayat seats for women candidates is discriminatory against their male counterparts.

Terming the newly-amended provision as the violative of the right to equality under Article 14 and 15 of the Constitution, the petition said the new provision restricts women from contesting elections on the seat of their choice. Challenging the constitutional validity of the Haryana Panchayati Raj (Second Amendment) Act, 2020, which deals with the reservation of seats in gram panchayat, panchayat samitis and zila parishads, the petition pointed out that the amendment allows women to contest only from the even-numbered ward and prevents them from contesting from the odd-numbered wards, despite the later being open and general wards.

The petition has challenged the legality of the recently amended Act, particularly relating to the scheme of reservation provided in it, said Dalal.

According to him, the petitioners have submitted that the Act has inter alia amended sections 9, 59 and 120 of the Haryana Panchayati Raj Act, 1994 which deals with the reservation of seats in Gram Panchayat, Panchayat Samiti and Zila Parishad. The petition mentions that as per the amended subsection (1) of sections 9, 59 and 120 of the amendment Act, all wards are to be sequentially numbered -- odd and even -- for reservation of seats.

"As per the amended subsections (3) and (6) of sections 9, 59 and 120, the posts of sarpanches, members and chairmen, falling in the even-numbered wards have been reserved for women irrespective of whether those seats fall under the general category or reserved for SC/ST candidates," the petition said.

The Act, however, provides that "persons other than women" can contest from odd-numbered wards, said the petition, adding that the term "persons other than a woman" has not been defined under the amendment and would logically include only males and transgenders and exclude women.

"The amendment thus restricts women candidates from contesting from odd-numbered wards which are otherwise open or general wards," the petition said.

"Further, the chapter IX of Constitution, which deals with the Panchayati Raj Institutions, provides for reservation of not less than one-third seats for women and does not impose an upper limit on the number of women candidates who may contest elections from open or general category seats," the petition said.

Thus, the amendment restricts women to contesting only 50 per cent seats and not more than that despite there being no constitutional bar on the number of panchayat seats that they can contest on, the petition said.

"The effect of the amendment can also be seen from another angle as it seeks to provide reservation to men in odd-numbered wards also by using the qualification "persons other than a woman".

"The amendment does not leave any room for general or open wards which is also against the Constitution and provisions of the Haryana Panchayati Raj Act, 1994," the petition said.

(This story has not been edited by Devdiscourse staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)