People having over two kids can contest rural polls: HC scraps Uttarakhand rule

Uttarakhand High Court Thursday quashed a provision made in the Panchayati Raj Amendment Act, disqualifying people with more than two children from contesting rural polls in the state.

The court clarified that the cut off date for implementing the amendment will be July 25, 2019, which means that candidates with more than two children after that date are ineligible to contest panchayat elections while those with three or more children prior to that date can.

A division bench of the high court headed by Chief Justice Ramesh Rangnathan and Justice Alok Verma passed the order on Thursday.

Panchayat elections will be held in 12 districts of the state in three phases from October 6 to October 16.

The results will be announced on October 21.

Nominations for the three-tier polls begin tomorrow.

The Panchayat Act's provision to ban candidates with more than two children had been challenged by a petition filed by Manohar Lal of Kotabag and former block president Jot Singh Bisht, among others.

It was said in the petition that the government was implementing the amendment with retrospective effect without granting a mandatory grace period of 300 days for implementation.

The petitioners also challenged the the minimum educational qualification of passing high school for the post of panchayat representatives. But the court did not comment on this which means the condition will apply to candidates.

It was also claimed that co-operative society members having more than two children, cannot contest election but most of the villagers are often members of some cooperative society or the other.