Hearing the petition filed by the Gram Pradhan Sangathan against the recent amendments in the Panchayati Raj Act, the High Court of Uttarakhand has directed the petitioners to provide information about the number of children they have along with an affidavit in the court on Friday. The petition was taken up for hearing by the divison bench of chief justice Ramesh Ranganathan and justice Alok Kumar Verma. The hearing on the petition will continue on Friday.

According to the case details, Kotabagh resident Manohar Lal Arya, Himanshu Pandey, Kundan Singh, Ritesh Joshi, Pravin Kumar and Suresh Arya along with the Gram Pradhan Sangathan had filed a petition in the high court regarding the amendment made in the Panchayati Raj Act during 2019. The petitioners have further stated that following the amendment, those with more than two children will be prevented from contesting in the Panchayat elections, which is not right. The petitioners have also stated that the changes made in the Act are being implemented from a back-date which is against the rules. It has been stated by the petitioners that if an amendment is made in an Act, a time period of 300 days is given in order to implement the amendment. However, the state government is implementing the amendment in question from a back-date. It has been stated in the petition that the conditions for having only two children and minimum educational qualification of high school pass are not practical in the mountainous regions. The petitioners have further contended that according to the amendments in the Act cooperative society members with more than two children cannot constest in the elections. However, in the villages, most villagers are members of some or the other cooperative society. Considering this, it will be difficult to find a person eligible for the post of Gram Pradhan, the petitioners have stated. The high court division bench stated that if the candidates are interested in contesting the election, they should inform the court about their children along with an affidavit on Friday.