Lucknow, Jun 2 The Lucknow Bench of the Allahabad High Court on Tuesday sought a response from the Uttar Pradesh government in a case challenging the state's decision to appoint existing gram pradhans (village heads) as administrators until fresh panchayat elections are held and new village heads are elected.
The court directed the state counsel to obtain appropriate instructions from the government and apprise it on June 3.
A vacation bench comprising Justices Shekhar B Saraf and A K Chaudhary passed the order on a public interest litigation (PIL) filed by local advocate Om Prakash Prajapati.
The petitioner has challenged the state government's order of May 25 appointing sitting gram pradhans as administrators.
The petitioner contends that under Section 12(3)(a) of the Uttar Pradesh Panchayat Raj Act, the tenure of a gram pradhan is limited to five years from the date of taking oath.
However, by not conducting panchayat elections on time and instead appointing the existing gram pradhans as administrators, the government has effectively extended their tenure indefinitely, which is contrary to law.
The petitioner has urged the court to direct the government to follow the earlier practice adopted when panchayat elections could not be conducted on schedule. In such situations, assistant development officers (panchayat) or other government officials were appointed as administrators.
The petition seeks a similar arrangement this time instead of allowing the outgoing gram pradhans to continue as heads and control the village panchayats.
