Panchayati Raj and Urban Local Bodies of Haryana: Acts and Articles

Local government is the third tier of the Indian federal structure, and in Haryana it runs through panchayats in the villages and municipal bodies in the towns. The 73rd and 74th Constitutional Amendment Acts of 1992 gave both a place in the Constitution, and the state works them through the Haryana Panchayati Raj Act, 1994, the Haryana Municipal Act, 1973 and the Haryana Municipal Corporation Act, 1994. HSSC, HPSC, Haryana Police, clerk and SSC papers ask the same things from this chapter: the tiers and the titles of their office-bearers, the article numbers of Part IX and Part IXA, the two schedules of subjects, and the features peculiar to Haryana, above all the qualifications prescribed for candidates in 2015 and the Supreme Court judgment that upheld them.

How panchayati raj reached the Constitution

Article 40, a Directive Principle, asks the State to organise village panchayats as units of self-government. The Balwant Rai Mehta Committee of 1957 recommended the three-tier design, which Rajasthan inaugurated at Nagaur on 2 October 1959. The Ashok Mehta Committee of 1977 preferred two tiers, the G. V. K. Rao Committee of 1985 wanted the block to be the planning unit, and the L. M. Singhvi Committee of 1986 first demanded constitutional status. The 73rd Amendment Act, 1992 inserted Part IX, Articles 243 to 243-O, with the Eleventh Schedule of 29 subjects, and came into force on 24 April 1993, now National Panchayati Raj Day. The 74th Amendment Act, 1992 inserted Part IXA, Articles 243-P to 243-ZG, with the Twelfth Schedule of 18 subjects, and came into force on 1 June 1993. Haryana, created in 1966, had until then worked the Punjab Gram Panchayat Act, 1952 and the Punjab Panchayat Samitis and Zila Parishads Act, 1961; it replaced them with the Haryana Panchayati Raj Act, 1994 to carry out the amendment.

The three tiers in Haryana

The Gram Sabha, under Article 243-A, is the body of all registered voters of the panchayat area and is the only direct democracy in the system; it passes the annual accounts and approves the list of beneficiaries of schemes. Article 243-B requires the three tiers, with the middle tier optional only in a state of under twenty lakh people. Article 243-E fixes a five-year term and requires a fresh election before it ends or within six months of a dissolution; a body constituted after a dissolution serves only the remainder of the term. Article 243-F sets twenty-one as the minimum age to contest, against twenty-five for the Lok Sabha and the assembly. Article 243-D reserves seats for Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes in proportion to their population and not less than one-third of all seats and chairperson posts for women; Haryana has gone beyond this constitutional floor by its own amendments, which also provide reservation for the Backward Classes, and the share for women has been raised by the state. Article 243-G and the Eleventh Schedule list the 29 subjects that may be devolved, and the devolution of functions, funds and functionaries happens only when the state legislature makes a law for it.

The Haryana amendment of 2015 and the Rajbala case

In 2015 Haryana amended its Panchayati Raj Act to prescribe conditions for contesting a panchayat election. A general category candidate had to have passed matriculation; women and Scheduled Caste candidates needed Class 8; a Scheduled Caste woman contesting as a panch needed Class 5. A candidate was also required to have no arrears of electricity dues or of loans from a cooperative bank or society, to have a functional toilet at home, and not to be charge-sheeted in a serious criminal case. The amendment was challenged as arbitrary and as striking at the right to contest. In Rajbala versus State of Haryana, decided in December 2015, the Supreme Court upheld it, holding that the right to contest is a statutory right and that the legislature may prescribe such qualifications. Ownership of land was never one of the conditions, a point examiners test by asking which condition was not imposed. This case, with the 1994 Act, is the most frequently asked item from the chapter.

Urban local bodies and the money

Article 243-Q provides three kinds of municipality: a Nagar Panchayat for a transitional area, a Municipal Council for a smaller urban area and a Municipal Corporation for a larger urban area, the category being decided by the Governor from population, density, revenue, non-agricultural employment and economic importance. In Haryana the councils and committees run under the Haryana Municipal Act, 1973 and the corporations under the Haryana Municipal Corporation Act, 1994, the first corporation of the state being Faridabad, the largest city, with Gurugram, Panchkula, Karnal, Rohtak, Hisar, Yamunanagar, Sonipat, Ambala and Manesar among those created later. The Mayor heads a corporation and the municipal commissioner is its executive head; the state has amended its law so that the Mayor and the president of a council are elected directly by the voters. Elections to all these bodies are held by the Haryana State Election Commission under Articles 243-K and 243-ZA, not by the Election Commission of India. Article 243-I requires a State Finance Commission every five years for the panchayats and Article 243-Y the same for the municipalities, and Article 243-ZD provides a District Planning Committee to consolidate the plans of the rural and urban bodies of a district.