8/16/2019 SC Upholds Haryana Law Which Makes Education Must for Panchayat Candidates _ the Indian Express

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3/18/2016 SC upholds Haryana law which makes education must for panchayat candidates | The Indian Express

http://indianexpress.com/article/india/india-news-india/supreme-court-upholds-minimum-educational-criteria-for-contesting-polls-in-haryana/

Upholding the constitutional validity of a law enacted by Haryana government to bar the illiterate from

contesting panchayat polls in the state, the Supreme Court ruled Thursday that “it is only education

which gives a human being the power to discriminate between right and wrong, good and bad”.

The top court also said it would be perfectly valid for the legislature to disqualify a candidate from

seeking election to a civic body if he or she lacks “basic norms of hygiene” by not having a functional

toilet at home.

Delivering the verdict, which may pave the way for introduction of minimum education as a prerequisite

for contesting polls at various levels, the bench of Justices J Chelameswar and Abhay Manohar Sapre

said such a disqualification has to be upheld as a reasonable restriction on people’s “constitutional right”

to contest polls.

Apart from Haryana, Rajasthan is the only other state to fix minimum education qualifications for those

contesting panchayat polls.