DMPQ: Do you think educational qualification should be the criteria for fighting panchayat elections? (POLITY)

The main objective of the 73rd Constitutional amendment act was to give wider representation and make the citizen at the grass root level a partner in decision making. Educational qualification criteria affects the representative objective as it make more than 60% of the candidates non eligible. The major reasons against the provisions are as follows:

  1. i) it unduly restricts a citizen’s right to contest elections and thereby challenges the basic premise of a republican democracy.
  2. ii) Denying the right to contest effectively restricts the right of a citizen to vote for a candidate of her choice since more than half the population is restricted from contesting

iii)     it disproportionately disenfranchises the more marginal sections of society: women, Dalits and poor.

  1. iv) These restrictions reveal that State governments and courts do not value local governments for their representative character. it reveals that State governments and courts place a premium on administration over representation in case of local governments.
  2. v) Against the principles and objective of 73rd and 74th CAA.