The Kerala High Court has temporarily restrained panchayats from releasing funds for the Navakerala Sadas without the approval of panchayat councils.
Justice Bechu Kurian Thomas issued the order on a group of petitions that came up before the court.
K. Ismail of Pukkottor panchayat, Malappuram, P.K. Sharafudheen, vice-president of Peruvayal panchayat, Kozhikode, and Abdurahiman Karatt, block panchayat president, Malappuram, had moved the High Court challenging the reported moves of the secretaries of local bodies from releasing funds for the Navakerala Sadas programme that is being undertaken by the State Cabinet in all the districts.
The single judge stayed the secretaries of the panchayats from releasing the funds till the disposal of the case. The court also issued notices to the panchayat secretaries concerned through special messengers. The court will consider the petitions on Thursday.
The Additional Chief Secretary in charge of the Local Self-Government department issued an order on October 27 permitting the local bodies to release funds for the programme. The secretaries of a few panchayats had released funds for the event following the government order.
Muhammad Shah, counsel for the petitioners, contended that the order amounted to usurping the rights of the local bodies. Earlier, the court had stayed a government directive to the secretaries of the municipal corporations to release funds for the programme.
The petitioners argued that the government order i authorising the secretaries of panchayats to spend the panchayats’ own funds without the consent of the president/ council of the panchayats was ultra vires to the Kerala Panchayat Raj Act, 1994 and violated the provisions of the Constitution that envisioned panchayats as self-governing institutions.
The petitioners sought the court’s intervention to declare the order as unconstitutional and infringing upon the autonomy of panchayats.
