The Karnataka high court has stated that it is past time for men to step aside and allow women to run grassroots institutions such as gram panchayats in order to fulfill the constitutional goal of empowerment.
While dismissing a plea challenging the decision to reserve the office of head of Konaje gram panchayat (GP) in Mangaluru taluk of Dakshina Kannada district for scheduled castes, the court made the statement (woman).
“It is, in fact, a vindication of empowerment of women in grassroots politics. The case at hand is a clear step towards the fruition of the dreams of the father of the nation with regard to village-level governance and participation of women in such governance,” Justice M Nagaprasanna stated. The judge also mentioned the 73rd amendment to the Constitution, which was a step toward grassroots self-governance, but equal rights had not yet been achieved.
“This is a classic case where empowerment of the hitherto under-powered has emerged in all vigour at the grassroots level. The challenge is made by one of the petitioners who is a scheduled caste man. If it were to be contrary to law, it would have been a different circumstance altogether, while it is not,” the judge noted in his order while dismissing the petition filed by Ravi and Ramakrishna K Pattori, two elected members of Konaje village panchayat.
The petitioners, among whom Ravi is an SC candidate, had requested that the job of adhyaksha in their village panchayat be reserved as SC (general) rather than SC (woman). Their contention was that one of the 12 elected members of the GP is already a scheduled caste member.
However, the State Election Commission notified the court that women had won all of the reserved seats in Mangaluru taluk's GPs and that this could not be used by the petitioners to argue that the chairperson and vice-chairperson positions in Konaje GP should not be reserved for them.
