Examine the changing structures of Panchayati Raj institutions with special reference to 73rd Constitution Amendment Act. (2013, 15 Marks)
The structure of Panchayati Raj means its tiers, how each is elected, who sits in it and how it is tied to the state. Before 1992 committees kept redesigning it and states kept dismantling it; the 73rd Amendment froze one constitutional frame. Tested against the record, the frame changed decisively while the power inside it changed far less.
Before 1992: structure at the pleasure of states
| Stage | Structural design |
|---|---|
| Balwantrai Mehta (1957) | Three tiers; only the village directly elected; block as fulcrum; Collector chairing the zila parishad |
| Ashok Mehta (1978) | Two tiers — zila parishad and a mandal panchayat of 15,000–20,000; district as first point of decentralisation; open party contest |
| G. V. K. Rao (1985) | Zila parishad as pivot of district planning |
| L. M. Singhvi (1986) | Constitutional status; gram sabha as base |
| 64th Bill (1989) | Uniform mandatory tiers — lost in the Rajya Sabha |
Resting on state statute and a non-justiciable Article 40, patterns varied — Rajasthan centred on the samiti, Maharashtra on the zila parishad, Karnataka on mandal panchayats — and elected bodies were superseded for years. Ashok Mehta’s finding that panchayats had been deliberately weakened indicted this insecurity.
The frame fixed by Part IX
- Gram sabha (243A): the village electorate as a constitutional body.
- Three tiers everywhere (243B), the intermediate tier optional below 20 lakh population — hence two-tier Goa and Sikkim.
- Direct election at every level (243C), reversing Balwantrai Mehta’s indirect upper tiers; intermediate and district chairpersons are chosen by members, the sarpanch’s mode is left to states (Maharashtra has switched three times since 2017); MPs and MLAs may sit above the village.
- Reservation (243D): SC/ST seats by population share and not less than one-third for women, chairpersons included; backward-class quotas merely permitted.
- Five-year term (243E), with polls within six months of any dissolution — ending indefinite supersession.
- State Finance Commission (243I), State Election Commission (243K), and a District Planning Committee (243ZD, through the 74th Amendment) joining rural and urban plans.
Later adjustments
- PESA 1996: a hamlet-based gram sabha; half the seats and every chairperson reserved for Scheduled Tribes in Fifth Schedule areas.
- Over twenty states, Bihar first in 2006, raised women’s quota to 50%; women now hold about 14.5 lakh of roughly 32 lakh seats.
- Planning scaffolding: annual Gram Panchayat Development Plans on e-GramSwaraj; DRDAs folded into zila parishads after 2022; the 2025 law replacing MGNREGA mandates Viksit Gram Panchayat Plans.
Testing the change
The structure moved where the Constitution commanded and stalled where it only permitted. Articles 243G and 243H say legislatures “may” devolve the 29 Eleventh Schedule subjects and taxing powers; Finance Commission advice binds nobody. The 2024 devolution index reads 43.9%, and own taxes yield about one per cent of revenue. Legislators crowd upper tiers, ministers chair many DPCs, capacity is thin, and the Mani Shankar Aiyar Committee (2013) found “Sarpanch Raj” displacing the gram sabha. Singhvi’s constitutionalism prevailed; Ashok Mehta’s call for compulsory taxation did not.
Conclusion
The Amendment turned a reversible, indirectly elected, socially narrow structure into a permanent, directly elected, inclusive one — a real change. With functions, funds and staff left to states, the architecture is national; its substance remains discretionary.