Court orders PR bodies' polls by March 31

By Our Legal Correspondent

NEW DELHI, NOV. 24. The Supreme Court, while dismissing a special leave petition (SLP) from Andhra Pradesh in the `Panchayati Raj bodies election case,' today directed the State and the State Election Commission to complete the process of elections by March 31, 2001.

A Bench, comprising Mr. Justice G. B. Pattanaik and Mr. Justice U. C. Banerjee, dismissed the SLP against a judgment of the AP High Court which quashed the AP Mandal Parishad and Zilla Parishads (Transitional Arrangements) Ordinance, 2000, and other related GOs, and directed the State Election Commission to complete the process of elections to Panchayat Raj bodies by June 30, 2000.

By this ordinance, the Government appointed special officers to discharge the functions of the Zilla Parishads and Mandal Parishads till the newly elected members assumed office.

During hearing of the SLP, the Bench observed that the impugned ordinance had since lapsed and it was not replaced by an Act of the State Legislature.

Another case pending in HC

Our Special Correspondent in Hyderabad writes:

Elections to Panchayat Raj bodies will have to be held before March next, following the Supreme Court dismissal of the SLP.

The Congress (I) welcomed the Supreme Court decision, and Dr.M.V. Mysura Reddy, Congress (I) MLA, demanded that the State Government should resign on this issue because it had promulgated an ordinance seeking extension of time for the elections, and introduced a bill in the budget session of the Assembly to replace the ordinance, and then midway through the session, withdrew the bill, with the result that the ordinance got lapsed. The SLP could not be sustained with the ordinance lapsing, he pointed out.

It may be recalled that elections to Panchayat Raj institutions are held on a five-tier basis, with the voters electing Sarpanches, Mandal Praja Parishad and Zilla Parishad chairmen, as also Mandal Parishad Territorial Constituency and Zilla Parishad Territorial Constituency members. The AP Assembly passed a unanimous resolution, with the Congress (I) support, to have a three-tier system, deleting the MPTC and ZPTC members from the list because they had only ornamental positions without any powers.

But converting the five-tier to three-tier system required a constitutional amendment. The Congress (I) changed its stand in Parliament and declined to support a Constitutional amendment for a three-tier system. The State Government then promulgated an ordinance seeking an extension of time hoping to get a constitutional amendment for a three-tier system, but it found that there was not much support from other parties for such an amendment, and, therefore, allowed the Ordinance to lapse.

Now, the State Government has to conduct elections on a five-tier system as before. But there is another case pending in the Andhra Pradesh High Court, in which the manner in which wards, village Sarpanch posts and posts of Mandal and Zilla Parishad president have been reserved for Backward Classes, has been challenged on the ground there is no census of the population of Backward classes villagewise. If the rules in force for such reservation are upheld, then elections can go ahead, but if these rules are held to be bad in law, then these elections will have to be postponed.

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