Can’t bar women from fighting panchayat polls even if proxy is followed: SC
The Supreme Court in India has stated that it cannot prevent women from contesting panchayat elections on the basis that they are figureheads.
New Delhi: Calling equal representation of women in political bodies an “evolutionary process”, the Supreme Court on Thursday observed that it cannot prevent a section of women from contesting panchayat elections on a contention that they are merely figureheads with male members of their families exercising real authority.
A bench, headed by justice Sanjay Kishan Kaul, said the Supreme Court is all for women empowerment but there are certain limitations to the court’s ambit of powers and scope of its jurisdiction, particularly in matters touching upon electoral democracy.
“If the constitutional amendment has been followed only in letter and not in spirit, how will this court create the spirit? We are all for empowering women but it’s an evolutionary process… The whole problem is that you say panchayats are run by proxy. How do we preclude wives of influential men from contesting?” the bench, which also included justice Sudhanshu Dhulia, asked the lawyer for the PIL petitioner.
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The petition complaining against the role of male members in preventing women representatives from active participation in Panchayati Raj institutions (PRIs) was filed by Uttar Pradesh-based Mundona Rural Development Foundation. The organisation’s lawyer, Swati Jindal, lamented that the constitutional provision providing for reservation for women at the grassroot levels of local bodies is being frustrated by male members wresting control of decision-making. She added that a proxy process is followed in selection of panchayat pradhans and that the men behind the elected women are operating the panchayats.
Even as it acknowledged the problem, the bench wondered about the kind of directives a court could pass to ameliorate the problem, as projected.
“It’s an issue, yes. But it’s an issue for the Executive. It’s not for this court to pass orders in a matter like this. We can’t have unrealistic expectations from this court. In an electoral democracy, there are many things which may not function the way they are expected to, but the court cannot interfere in everything. This will be a complete interference in somebody else’s domain,” it added.
The petitioner’s lawyer suggested that a committee may be constituted to suggest some measures, but the bench remained indisposed, asking the petitioner to instead move a representation with the Panchayati Raj ministry.
In its order, the bench recorded that the court cannot preclude a section of women merely because some of them are willing to lend their shoulders to a scenario where they are dependent on male members of their families to discharge their functions. “We feel that it’s for the Panchayati Raj ministry to look into the petitioner’s grievances as to whether there can be a better mechanism to implement reservation for women. We permit the petitioner to move a representation with the ministry concerned,” the order stated.
Article 243D, clause (3), of the Constitution ensures women’s involvement in Panchayati Raj institutions (PRIs) by requiring a one-third reservation for women out of the total number of seats to be filled by direct election and the number of offices of panchayat chairpersons. The gram panchayat, often known as the village panchayat, is the main body of rural local self-government, acting as an executive committee of the gram sabha. Gram panchayat is the lowest tier of the three-tier organisation in PRI’s.
As of now, at least 20 states – Andhra Pradesh, Assam, Bihar, Chhattisgarh, Gujarat, Himachal Pradesh, Jharkhand, Karnataka, Kerala, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Odisha, Punjab, Rajasthan, Sikkim, Tamil Nadu, Telangana, Tripura, Uttarakhand, and West Bengal – have have made provisions in their respective state Panchayati Raj laws for 50% reservation for women in PRIs.
Popular Amazon web series Panchayat had also shown the husband of a woman pradhan of a panchayat executing all the duties of the office on behalf of his wife.
