Amend panchayat Act in four weeks: High court directs government - Hindustan Times
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Amend panchayat Act in four weeks: High court directs government

Hindustan Times, Jodhpur | ByHT Correspondent
Feb 26, 2018 10:57 PM IST

State government counsel Rishabh Tayal told the court that the government had decided to amend section 19 of the Rajasthan Panchayati Raj Act.

The Rajasthan High Court ordered the state government on Monday to complete the process for amending the Panchayati Raj Act, 1994, in four weeks to allow people with more than two children to contest rural polls if one of them is disabled.

The Rajasthan High Court ordered the state government on Monday to complete the process for amending the Panchayati Raj Act, 1994, in four weeks to allow people with more than two children to contest rural polls if one of them is disabled.(PTI (REPRESENTATIVE PIC))
The Rajasthan High Court ordered the state government on Monday to complete the process for amending the Panchayati Raj Act, 1994, in four weeks to allow people with more than two children to contest rural polls if one of them is disabled.(PTI (REPRESENTATIVE PIC))

Earlier, state government counsel Rishabh Tayal told the court that the government had decided to amend section 19 of the Rajasthan Panchayati Raj Act to allow such people to contest rural body elections.

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“The law department has examined the draft of the proposed amendment and the Cabinet is pending,” the counsel said. “After the Cabinet approval, it will be sent back to the law department for drafting the amendment bill.”

A division bench of justices Gopal Krishna Vyas and Vinit Kumar Mathur then directed the state government to complete the process within four weeks.

The court was hearing a petition by Shrawan Singh Rao, 43, of Jalore who had challenged the provision in the Act that prohibited people with more than two children from contesting panchayat elections.

Petitioner’s lawyer Hemant Ballani said Rao sought an exception to the provision to not count disabled children. “Rao’s first child, Vivek Singh, born in 1996 has celebral palsy and has more than 70% permanent disability. We pleaded before the court that such children should not be counted when barring people from contesting elections,” Ballani said.

The lawyer said the petitioner was disqualified from contesting panchayat elections in 2015 because he has three children, including the disabled son.

“The state government has amended the service rules for this change but the panchayat act continued to have the provision. We challenged this discrepancy in the high court,” Ballani said.

“The petitioner’s son has irregular posture, spinal curvature and mental impairment, and is totally dependent on his parents,” the lawyer said.

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