-The Telegraph Jaipur: At least two sitting women village heads in Rajasthan would have to watch from the sidelines when rural polls get under way tomorrow after the high court today refused to stay an ordinance that has fixed minimum Educational Qualifications for contestants. A bench of Chief Justice Sunil Ambawani and Justice Prakash Gupta said courts couldn't interfere once the notification had been issued and the election process set in motion. The...

-The Hindu In India, the right to vote is only a statutory right, but the act of voting is a constitutionally protected ‘freedom of expression' under Article 19, as a fundamental right (PUCL, 2013). The Supreme Court recently refused to hear a petition challenging the Rajasthan Panchayati Raj (Second Amendment) Ordinance, 2014 on procedural grounds, sending it back to the High Court. The controversial ordinance introduces a set of Educational Qualifications of...

-The Indian Express It was an interesting discussion. The subject was the recent ordinance promulgated by the government of Rajasthan banning men and women without a Class X certificate from contesting zila parishad and panchayat samiti elections. To contest at the sarpanch level, a candidate will need to have passed Class VIII (Class V in tribal areas). In this state, with a particularly poor record of literacy among women, tribals and...

-The Hindu The introduction of Educational Qualifications as eligibility criteria for contesting panchayat elections has shocked and angered rural Rajasthan, including supporters of the ruling BJP When the literacy drive was in full force, I happened to visit a village in Ajmer district with a friend who was a civil servant. There was bold graffiti on a prominent school wall, which said: Saksharta ki kya pehchan? Upar chaddi, niche baniyan (How do...

-The Times of India JAIPUR (Rajsthan): For the primitive Sahariya adivasis, the panchayat polls may already be over. The only primitive tribe of Rajasthan, Sahariyas reside mainly in the Shahabad and Kishanganj blocks of Baran district. But there is barely a handful amongst them who meet the new Educational Qualification norms set by the government for contesting the panchayat elections. Recently the state government through an ordinance issued directives that candidates contesting...