A remarkable observation was made by the Karnataka High Court on Friday regarding husbands of elected women in the Yadgir Zilla Parishad functioning as proxies to perform official duties.
The court expressed its displeasure in this regard and passed an interim order and issued an order to the Rural Development and Panchayat Raj Department and the Deputy Commissioner of Yadgir to stop such activities, The New Indian Express reported.
“The allegation is that the husbands of elected women representatives are entering the office of the Zilla Panchayat and illegally seeking to participate in meetings on behalf of their wives. This is a serious allegation. This should not happen,” the judgement was quoted by TNIE.
A division bench of Chief Justice Subhro Kamal Mukherjee and Justice R B Budihal made this observation in response to PIL filed by Daksh, an NGO, seeking directions to prohibit the husbands functioning as proxies, the report said.
According to the PIL, husbands of elected women in the Yadgir Zilla Parishad stated that their wives did not understand how to work, were not familiar with official proceedings and necessarily required the help of their husbands to perform their official duties, the report adds.
Article 243-D of the Constitution has provisions for reservation of women in panchayats at the district, intermediate and village level.
The court observed that husbands taking over their wives’ official duties defeats the purpose of Article 243-D and also provisions of the Karnataka Panchayat Act, the report said.
The Yadgir ZP president had allowed the husbands of the elected women representatives to attend the meeting in May 2016. The Deputy Commissioner allowing the ZP President to allow unelected members to attend meeting is illegal as 12 of the 24 members of the Yadgir ZP are women. This is arbitrary ad illegal and opposes that principle of a democracy, the PIL accessed by TNIE states.