‘Sarpanch can’t be punished for spouse’s action’

Mumbai: The Aurangabad bench of the Bombay high court has held that the sarpanch of a village cannot be disqualified from the post if it is proved that her husband has encroached and usurped state land.

The court held that based on the report of the talathi, the act was that of the husband and though the sarpanch was related with the man she could not be held liable for his act and punished for it.

A vacation bench of justice Mangesh Patil was hearing a writ filed by Vandana Deepak Sagat seeking directions to the Jalna Collector to call back an order wherein he had exercised his powers to invoke section 14-A of the Maharashtra Village Panchayat Act, 1958 and disqualified her from the post. The grounds for her disqualification according to the Collector's notice was that her husband had encroached upon government land and as per the Act it was a corrupt practice that deemed her valid for disqualification.

While arguing for the sarpanch, advocate S.P. Pandav argued that the Collectors order itself had mentioned that the alleged encroachment was done by the husband and not by her.

It was further argued that while the concerned talathi in a March 2018 report had submitted that there was no encroachment even by the husband, a subsequent report submitted in April 2018 to the tahsildar, the talathi had said that the encroachment was done by the husband.

After hearing the submissions court granted interim relief to the petitioner.