SC upholds law on education criteria for panchayat polls.

In a judgment which could usher in reforms in grassroots democracy, the supreme court on
Thursday upheld constitutional validity of a Haryana law, requiring candidates in panchayat
polls to have minimum educational qualification, to be free from debt and have toilet facility
at home.
A bench of justices J Chelameswar and Abhay Manohar Sapre said under the constitutional
scheme, every person, entitled to vote, is not automatically eligible to contest for every office
as the constitution itself imposes limitations on the right to contest depending upon the office.
According to the Haryana Panchayati Raj Act 2015, the minimum education to make a
person eligible to exercise his or her constitutional right to contest in a panchayat election is
matriculate pass in case of general candidates; Class VIII pass for a woman candidate or a
candidate belonging to scheduled caste; and class V pass for a SC woman candidate
contesting for the post of panch.
Among the other grounds for disqualification from contesting polls are failure to pay arrears
to any primary agriculture cooperative society or agriculture cooperative bank, failure to pay
electricity bill arrears and not having functional toilet at home.
Dismissing a petition against the law, the bench said there is nothing “irrational or illegal or
unconnected” if the legislature prescribed minimum educational qualification for candidates.
“It is only education which gives a human being the power to discriminate between right and
wrong, good and bad. Therefore, prescription of an educational qualification is not irrelevant
for better administration of panchayats”, justice Chelameswar who authored the judgment.