The 73rd Amendment: Panchayats

In one line

The 73rd Amendment inserted Part IX into the Constitution, which makes panchayats compulsory, elected, reserved, term limited and financed through a defined process, so that local self-government stopped depending on what a State Government felt like doing.

In the wording a student can write in an exam: the Constitution (Seventy-third Amendment) Act, 1992, in force from 24 April 1993, inserted Part IX, "The Panchayats", comprising articles 243 to 243O and the Eleventh Schedule; its key features are a Gram Sabha at the village level, a three tier structure of panchayats at the village, intermediate and district levels, direct election to all seats, reservation for the Scheduled Castes, the Scheduled Tribes and women, a fixed term of five years with elections completed before its expiry or within six months of a dissolution, an independent State Election Commission, a State Finance Commission every five years, and a list of twenty nine subjects in the Eleventh Schedule which a State may devolve to enable panchayats to function as institutions of self-government.

The features, article by article

Article 243: definitions

Gram Sabha means a body consisting of persons registered in the electoral rolls relating to a village comprised within the area of a panchayat at the village level. Panchayat means an institution, by whatever name called, of self-government constituted under article 243B, for the rural areas. Intermediate level and village are what the Governor notifies.

Two things are settled in the definitions themselves: the Gram Sabha is every voter and not a committee, and a panchayat is an institution of self-government, which repeats article 40's phrase in an enforceable Part.

Article 243A: the Gram Sabha

A Gram Sabha may exercise such powers and perform such functions at the village level as the Legislature of a State may, by law, provide. Chapter 920 is on this article, including the weakness of the word "may".

Article 243B: constitution of panchayats

There shall be constituted in every State panchayats at the village, intermediate and district levels. The word is mandatory, and this single sentence ends the position described at chapter 890 under which panchayats existed only where a State chose.

The exception: the intermediate level may be omitted in a State having a population not exceeding twenty lakhs.

Article 243C: composition

All the seats in a panchayat shall be filled by persons chosen by direct election from territorial constituencies, with the population to seats ratio kept as nearly the same as practicable.

The chairperson of a village panchayat is elected as the State Legislature provides, and of an intermediate or district panchayat by and from amongst the elected members.

The State may also provide representation for chairpersons of the tier below, and for members of the Lok Sabha, the Rajya Sabha and the State legislature within the area, at levels other than the village.