With reference to Panchayati Raj Institutions in India which of the following statements is/are correct ?
1. Tenure of Panchayati Raj Institutions shall be of 5 years.
2. In Panchayati Raj Institution

Question

With reference to Panchayati Raj Institutions in India which of the following statements is/are correct ?
1. Tenure of Panchayati Raj Institutions shall be of 5 years.
2. In Panchayati Raj Institutions, out of the seats reserved, 1/4 of the seats shall be reserved for women belonging to Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe.
Select the correct answer from the code given below :
Code :

UnlockIAS · Accepted Answer

Correct — D, Only 1. Statement 1 is straight from Article 243E(1), which says that every Panchayat, unless sooner dissolved under any law for the time being in force, shall continue for five years from the date appointed for its first meeting and no longer. Statement 2 misquotes the fraction. Article 243D(2) provides that not less than ONE-THIRD — not one-fourth — of the total number of seats reserved for the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes under Article 243D(1) shall be reserved for women belonging to those communities. One-third is a constitutional floor, so a quarter would not be permissible even under a State law. Since only the first statement holds, the answer is 'Only 1'.

Why the other options are wrong — (a) This rejects the one provision that is textually correct. Article 243E(1) fixes the term of a Panchayat at five years from the date appointed for its first meeting, so statement 1 cannot be discarded — and statement 2's 'one-fourth' is the part that is wrong.  (b) Statement 2 fails on the fraction. The reservation for Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe women within the SC/ST-reserved seats is not less than one-third under Article 243D(2); 'one-fourth' appears nowhere in Part IX.  (c) Too sweeping. The five-year tenure in statement 1 is exactly what Article 243E(1) lays down, so at least one statement is correct and this option is ruled out at once.

Concept: Part IX of the Constitution, inserted by the Constitution (Seventy-third Amendment) Act, 1992 and in force from 24 April 1993, made Panchayati Raj a constitutional institution rather than a matter of State discretion. Two of its provisions are drilled repeatedly. Article 243E guarantees a fixed five-year term, requires that elections be completed before the term expires or within six months of a premature dissolution, and provides that a Panchayat reconstituted after premature dissolution serves only the remainder of the original term. Article 243D handles reservation: seats for Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes in proportion to their population in the Panchayat area, not less than one-third of those reserved seats for SC and ST women, and not less than one-third of all directly elected seats for women overall.

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