The Hindu : Front Page : No accounts for panchayat polls? No problem

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No accounts for panchayat polls? No problem

Nagesh Prabhu and Anil Kumar Sastry

Disqualification for not submitting panchayat election expenses is just three years

Bangalore: A contestant who fails to submit his or her election expenses account within 30 days of the elections in case of Assembly and Lok Sabha polls faces disqualification for six years. For zilla panchayat and taluk panchayat polls, the disqualification period is only three years, thus enabling defaulting candidates to contest the next panchayat election.

Using this provision in the Karnataka Panchayat Raj Act, many candidates who were disqualified for not submitting their statement of election expenditure after the 2005 panchayat elections are all set to contest the coming polls to these local bodies.

Indeed, an amendment to the Act in 2003 relaxed the law in respect of the zilla panchayat and taluk panchayat elections. Section 308-c specifically states that a candidate who does not submit the accounts within 30 days from the date of election and fails to justify the delay could be disqualified for six years.

However, Section 167 of the Act, which deals with qualification and disqualification of zilla panchayat members, offers a provision that circumvents this. It brings this six-year period of disqualification down to three years. Section 167 (j-1) (cc) says that if a person is disqualified under Section 308-c of the Act, such disqualification ceases to operate after three years from the date of the order of disqualification issued by the SEC.

Similar exemptions are offered for candidates contesting the taluk panchayat elections too by virtue of Section 128 (j-1) (cc).

On the other hand, candidates who are disqualified by a court of law in the Assembly and Lok Sabha elections will be debarred from contesting polls for six years.

Many disqualified

According to SEC officials, 831 zilla panchayat candidates and 4,114 taluk panchayat candidates, who contested the 2005 panchayat polls and were disqualified by the commission for failing to provide their election expenditure accounts on time, are eligible to contest. Some of the elected members in 2005 were also disqualified. They too are eligible to contest polls again. In all, 4,766 candidates for zilla panchayats and 14,899 candidates for taluk panchayats were in the fray in 2005.

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