Why reviving Nyaya Panchayats is a just demand

• When Kanta Devi of Bilaspur went to get her child’s birth registered in the local Gram Panchayat, she was asked to get her husband. He had been absconding for six months. Even though the law of the land does not mandate the presence of the father for registration of birth, her request was turned down.
• Hemlata of Surali village in Solan district returned to her parental home six months after her wedding due to violence and torture inflicted on her for dowry. For 22 years now, she hasn’t been able to get her name on the ration card in Surali because her ex-husband has been using her name not only on the ration card, but also on the birth certificate of his two children. Hemlata never got divorced, hence his new wife’s name could not be shown on record.

Hemlata is among the thousands of women called parityakta, deserted by their husbands, in Himachal Pradesh. Their peculiar status robs them of services, rights and justice. According to the census data of 2011, the state has 3,21,556 single women, of whom over two lakh are widows, 6,956 are deserted wives, 4,549 are divorced and 16,576 are spinsters. The total population of the state is 68,56,509.

Women associated with Ekal Nari Shakti Sangathan (ENSS) say this is just the tip of the iceberg. There are lakhs of old women, dependent on sons and relatives, who have no means to access justice. Then, there are those whose husbands are convicts or HIV Positive; the men left them to fend for the children without any assurance of return or resources. 

The Himachal government was among the pioneers, after Maharashtra, to accept the demand of the ENSS earlier this year to amend its 1994 Panchayati Raj Act by making two Mahila Gram Sabhas in a year mandatory and reserving the post of Up-Pradhan for women candidates. Even though this was done to resolve women’s issues and eliminate their hesitation to participate in panchayat proceedings, a large number of single women and women from the weaker sections do not get affordable, accessible and acceptable justice. Most single women cannot afford long distance travel, expensive lawyers and court fees involved with the judicial process. 

These women are now demanding setting up of autonomous Nyaya Panchayats, for which 20,000 citizens have signed a resolution and of the 500 panchayats the ENSS works with, 300 have signed the resolution.

Himachal’s experiment

The state did have Nyaya Panchayats till 1978. Perhaps, following in the footsteps of Punjab, which disbanded the Nyaya Panchayats after the reorganisation of states in 1967, the Himachal government, under an amendment to the HP Panchayati Raj Act 1967, merged the autonomous Nyaya Panchayats with  Gram Panchayats. The hill state thus lost an effective tool for dispute resolution to meet its peculiar needs and demands.

In a study conducted by a retired law officer of the state, it was found that when appeals were filed against the decisions of the Nyaya Panchayats in the High Court, 80 per cent were rejected by the court — proving the efficacy of the Nyaya Panchayats. When there was a clamour for re-establishment of Nyaya Panchayats, the government sponsored a study. 

Conducted by the Chandigarh-based Centre for Research in Rural and Industrial Development, the study concluded that people in HP do not approach panchayats for justice. The finding was only statistically correct, since panchayats do not keep a written record of disputes being resolved or ignored. The panchayats are not trained to discharge judicial functions. They are not even provided registers that need to be maintained.

The need for Nyaya Panchayats is being felt more intently now because, in the last one decade, the election of Gram Panchayats has become competitive. "Till 2005, a Gram Panchayat election did not even require a pamphlet. Today, they spend close to Rs 4-5 lakh for an electorate of 1,000 people. The focus has shifted to development work, with each panchayat receiving Rs 80-90 lakh per annum. No one wants to get into disputes and antagonise one party. Compromise is all they ask for, often from women and the marginalised,” says Subhash Mendhapurkar of SUTRA (Social Uplift Through Rural Action), a voluntary organisation working in HP.

Added to this is a new kind of inequality bred in the rural life that segregates services into the government and private sector. Often the poor and the disadvantaged find themselves at the mercy of the government machinery that controls their right to services at schools, hospitals and other institutions. Gram Panchayats are busy in their performance; they neither have the time nor the inclination to take care of their ‘petty’ grievances.

The cultural factor is equally important in dispute resolution. While the family and biradari would accompany a woman to the panchayat in a dispute, they would not do so while going to a thana or kachahari. 

Dr SS Meenakshisundaram, former secretary of the Union Rural Development and Panchayati Raj Department, says Nyaya Panchayat for the ordinary people is necessary for several reasons — justice will be better delivered, since it is easier to lie in a distant court where no one knows you than in a panchayat where everyone does; it will be faster; it will also reduce the traffic at local courts; and it will be cheaper. This is what ordinary people need. He avers that it is not only the administration that needs to be decentralised, the judiciary too needs decentralisation. 

The rural population perceives the courts as places meant for criminals, and are hesitant to approach them for justice. That is why thousands of Hemlatas, with their right to services violated for 22 years, find no means to get justice. More and more Gram Panchayats are coming forward in favour of the demand for Nyaya Panchayats, so that thousands of old women can claim their right under the Parents Maintenance Act. This remains on paper as they cannot approach courts against their sons due to cultural barriers. 

So is the case with victims of domestic violence; the Nyaya Panchayat should be the first port to resolve grievances  because gram pradhans do not have the powers of the court which Nyaya Panchayats would. Tools of justice have to be acceptable and approachable, else these do not exist. 

‘Original jurisdiction is Gram Sabha’ 

Dr Upendra Baxi, former Vice-Chancellor of Delhi University and an expert on human rights, contends that if the original jurisdiction of the Supreme Court is the Government of India, of the High Court the state government, then panchayats, which were made self-governed bodies under the 73rd Amendment, the original jurisdiction of the Nyaya Panchayat is the Gram Panchayat. Experts also point out that because panchayats are constitutional bodies, their decisions can be challenged in higher bodies, which is not so with khaps, which are unconstitutional bodies; their social justice, therefore, cannot be challenged in a higher court, nor can be acceptable to people.