08, Oct 2015

Legal Correspondent
NEW DELHI, October 8, 2015
Women candidates affected by Haryana’s new poll law imposing minimum educational qualifications to contest panchayat elections told the Supreme Court on Wednesday that “people do not choose to be illiterate.”
“In fact, it is the State’s failure to have not provided us with education. We should not be punished for the State’s failure. People do not choose to remain uneducated. This is a country where primary and secondary education is hardly available,” advocate Kirti Singh, counsel for a batch of candidates affected by the Haryana Panchayati Raj (Amendment) Act, 2015, submitted in the Supreme Court.
This maiden hearing followed the Haryana government’s decision to freeze its panchayat elections scheduled on October 4 when the Supreme Court refused to stop questioning the constitutionality of imposing minimum educational qualifications on candidates aspiring to be part of grassroots democracy.