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Features of 73rd and 74th Amendment 


The Constitution 73rd Amendment Act, 1992 came into effect from 24th April 1993. No one disputes that it is a historic legislation. The basic question arises as to what was the basic sprit behind this legislation? Was it limited to the passing of conformity acts and endowing panchayats with some administrative and financial powers or to make them genuine institutions for participatory self-government? The emphasis has been so far on the former, which has made panchayats mere implementing agencies of central and state schemes, passed on to them, with funds. The basic objective of the democratic decentralization through reactivation of the Panchayati Raj system was to realize Gandhiji’s concept of “ Swarajya”(Ibid.). In this Unit we will be discussing the various features of the 73rd and the 74th amendments.

Features of 73rd Constitutional Amendment

1. Part IX has been inserted immediately after ‘Part VIII’ of the Constitution and after the ‘Tenth Schedule’ of the Constitution, ‘ Eleventh Schedule ‘ has been added (Article 243G) which gives the detail list of functions to be performed by PRIs. Panchayats shall be constituted in every state at the village, intermediate and district levels, thus bringing about uniformity in the PR structure. However, the states having a population not exceeding 20 lakh have been given the option of not having any Panchayat at the intermediate level.
   
2. While the elections in respect of all the members to Panchayats at the level will be direct, the election in respect of the post of the Chairman at the intermediate and district level will be indirect. The mode of election of Chairman to the village level has been left to the State Government to decide. All members including the chairperson shall have the right to vote.
   
3. Reservation of seats for SC/STs has been provided in proportion to their population at each level. Not less than one-third of the total membership has been reserved for women (in both reserved and general category) and these seats may be allotted by rotation to different constituencies in a Panchayat. Similar reservations have been made in respect of the office of the chairperson also.
   
4. A uniform term of five years has been provided for the PRIs and in the event of dissolution or super session, election to constitute the body should be completed before the expiry of six months from the date of dissolution. It the remainder period is less than six months, fresh elections may not be necessary. Panchayat constituted upon dissolution may continue for the remainder of the period (Bajpai and Verma,
   1995).
5. With a view to ensuring continuity, it has been provided in the Act that all the Panchayats existing immediately before the commencement of this Amendment Act will continue till the expiry of their duration unless dissolved by a resolution to that effect passed by the State Legislatures concerned or any law relating to the panchayats which before the amendment came into force, not inconsistent with its provisions shall continue, unless amended or repealed.
   
6. There shall be an Election Commission for the conduct of all elections to the panchayats consisting of a State Election Commissioner to be appointed by the State Government. It shall also be in charge of superintendence, direction and control of the preparation of electoral rolls.
   
7. The State Legislature have been given the power to authorise the Panchayats to levy, collect and appropriate suitable local taxes and also provide for making grants-in-aid to the Panchayats from the consolidated fund of the concerned state.
   
8. A State Finance Commission has to be constituted once in every five years to review the financial position of the Panchayat and to make suitable recommendations to the Governor as to the principles which should govern the distribution between the state and the panchayats of revenue, whether net proceeds of the taxes, duties, tolls, and fees leviable by the state or grants in aid and recommend measures to strengthen the financial position of the panchayat bodies and deliberate on any other matter referred to it by the Governor. The Constitution 73 rd amendment act adds a sub clause (bb) to Article 280 of the Constitution. According to this sub clause, the Central Finance Commission, in addition to other stipulated duties, shall also make recommendations to the President regarding the measures needed to augment the then Consolidated Fund of a State to supplement the resources of the Panchayats in the State on the basis of the recommendations made by the Finance Commission of the State (Bajpai and Verma, 1995).
   
9. The State Legislatures should bring in necessary amendments to their Panchayat Acts within a maximum period of one year from the Commencement of this Amendment Act so as to conform to the provision contained in the Constitution