PRASHANT CHAUHAN Vs. STATE OF UTTARAKHAND

JUDGEMENT

(1.) In all these writ petitions, there is firstly a challenge to the order dtd. 18/11/2021 issued by the Government of Uttarakhand, Department of Panchayat on the subject of reservation and allocation of seats in Gram Panchayats, Kshettra Panchayats and District Panchayat of District Haridwar for the 3-Tier Panchayati elections.

(2.) The petitioners have further assailed, in their respective petitions, the subsequent similar orders, all dtd. 13/7/2022, whereby actual allocation of the seats in the Gram/ Kshettra/ District Panchayat have been made for the reserved categories in terms of the earlier order dtd. 18/11/2021.

(3.) Part-IX of the Constitution, containing Articles 243, 243A to 243-O were inserted into the Constitution by a Constitution (Seventy-third Amendment) Act, 1992 w.e.f. 24/4/1993. This part deals with the subject of Panchayats. Article 243B states that there shall be constituted in every State, Panchayats at the village, intermediate, and district levels in accordance with the provisions of Part IX. Article 243C lays down the composition of the Panchayats. All the seats in the Panchayat shall be filled by direct election from territorial constituencies in the Panchayat area. Under Article 243C(3), the Legislature of a State may, by law, provide for the representation of the Chairpersons of the Panchayats. Under Article 243D of the Constitution of India, seats are required to be reserved for the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes in the Panchayats, and the number of seats so reserved shall bear, as nearly as may be, the same proportion to the total number of seats to be filled by direct election in that Panchayat, as the population of the Scheduled Castes in that Panchayat area, or of the Scheduled Tribes in that Panchayat area, bears to the total population of that area and such seats may be allotted by rotation to different constituencies in a Panchayat.