Grass Root Democracy: The Panchayats

In one line

Since 1993 the Constitution itself has required every State to have elected village, block and district councils, to hold their elections on time, to reserve seats in them for Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes and women, and to let an independent commission run those elections.

In the wording a student can write in an exam: the Constitution (Seventy-third Amendment) Act 1992 inserted Part IX, articles 243 to 243-O, with effect from 24 April 1993. It converts what was a Directive Principle in article 40 into an enforceable constitutional scheme: a Gram Sabha of the whole village electorate under article 243A, a three-tier structure under article 243B, direct election of seats under article 243C, reservation for Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes and not less than one third of all seats for women under article 243D, a fixed five-year term with elections completed before it expires under article 243E, devolution of powers with reference to the Eleventh Schedule under article 243G, a State Finance Commission under article 243-I, a State Election Commission under article 243K, and a bar on court interference in electoral matters under article 243-O. In K. Krishna Murthy v. Union of India the Supreme Court held that reservation in local government rests on a distinct constitutional basis from articles 15(4) and 16(4), but that the fifty per cent ceiling still applies to it.

Why the law has this at all

Panchayats existed long before 1993, under State laws. The trouble was that State laws could be ignored. The Statement of Objects and Reasons to the Seventy-third Amendment, quoted in K. Krishna Murthy, names five failures: "absence of regular elections, prolonged supersessions, insufficient representation of weaker sections like Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes and women, inadequate devolution of powers and lack of financial resources."

Read that list again and the whole of Part IX falls into place. Each of the five failures has an article written against it: elections on time, no supersession beyond six months, reserved seats, devolution, and finance. That is the best structure for an answer on this topic.

The starting point in the original Constitution was article 40, a Directive Principle: "The State shall take steps to organise village panchayats and endow them with such powers and authority as may be necessary to enable them to function as units of self-government." A Directive Principle is not enforceable in a court, as [The Directive Principles] explains. The Seventy-third Amendment took the same idea and put it in the enforceable part of the Constitution.

Part IX, article by article

The Constitution hyphenates two of these, article 243-I and article 243-O, so that the letter is not read as a numeral.

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 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 specifies by public notification.