Appointing Authority            Under the provisions contained in Article 243K(1) of the Constitution of India, the Governor appoints the State Election Commissioner of the State.

Status

(a) Rule 5 of the State Election Commissioner  (Condition of Service) Rules, 1994 provides that the State Election Commissioner shall be entitled to the salary, equal to the salary of the Chief Secretary to Govt. of  Haryana.

(b)Under item No. 24 of the Warrant of Precedence notified by the State Government, the State Election Commissioner has been equated with the Chief Secretary to Government Haryana and the Financial Commissioners in the scale of Chief Secretary to State Government.

Term of office

(a) Rule 6 of the State Election Commissioner (Condition of Service) Rules, 1994 provides that the State Election Commissioner shall hold office for a period of five years from the date he assumes the office or till he attains the age of sixty five years, whichever is earlier.

(b) Clause (2) of Article 243K provides that the State Election Commissioner shall not be removed from the office except in the like manner and  on the grounds of the Judge of the High Court and the conditions of service of the State Election Commissioner shall not be varied to his disadvantage  after his appointment

(i) In exercise of the powers vested in the State Election Commissioner under Article 243K of the Constitution and Section 212 of the Haryana Panchayati Raj Act, 1994 (hereinafter called as 1994 Act), the State Election Commission issues the programme for preparation of ward-wise list of voters of the Gram Panchayats on the basis of existing Assembly electoral rolls.

(ii)The list of voters are prepared by the District Electoral Officers under the over all supervision and control of the Deputy Commissioner of the district.

(iii)The list of voters of all the wards of a Gram Panchayat automatically becomes the voters list for election to the office of Sarpanch of that Gram Panchayat.

(iv)Similarly the list of voters of all the wards of the Gram Panchayats  falling in the territorial constituency/ward of Panchayat Samiti alsoautomatically becomes the list of voters for election to that ward of the Panchayat Samiti.

(v)Similarly the list of voters of all the Gram Panchayats included in territorial constituency/ward of a Zila Parishad automatically becomes the list of voters for election to that ward of the Zila Parishad. 

(i)Observers In exercise of the plenary powers vested under Article 243K of the Constitution and Section 211 of the  1994 Act, the State Election Commissioner appoints Sr. IAS officers as Election Observers and they are assigned specific responsibilities for supervision of the poll process. The State Election Commissioner also appoints Senior Officers of the rank of Joint/Deputy Excise & Taxation Commissioner and Excise and Taxation Officers as Expenditure Observers.

(ii) District Election Officer (Panchayat) The State Election Commissioner has appointed the Deputy Commissioners of the district as the District Election Officers (Panchayat) and the Addl. Deputy Commissioners as Deputy District Election Officers (Panchayat) of their respective districts.

(iii) Block Election Officer(Panchayat) The Block Development & Panchayat Officers have been appointed as the Block Election Officers (Panchayat) for their respect Blocks.

(iv) Returning Officers (Panchayat)  Under the provisions of Rule 16 of the 1994 Rules, the Deputy Commissioners have been authorised to appoint not below the rank of Group-B officers as Returning Officers (Panchayat)  for every election to fill a seat in any Panchayat Samiti or Gram Panchayat.  The Deputy Commissioners have also been authorised to appoint Returning Officers  (Panchayat) for election to more than one Panchayat Samitis or Gram Panchayats.

(v) Assistant Returning Officer (Panchayat)  Under Rule 17 of the  1994 Rules, the Deputy Commissioners have been authorized to appoint one or more persons as Assistant Returning Officers (Panchayat) to assist the Returning Officers (Panchayat).

(vi) Presiding Officers Under Rule 21 of the 1994 Rules, the Returning Officers (Panchayat) are empowered to appoint such number of Presiding Officers for each Polling Station and Polling Officer or Officers to assist the Presiding Officer, as he thinks necessary. 

The Sub-Divisional Officer (Civil), Incharge of the Sub-Division  have also been entrusted with the over all control and supervision of elections to Panchayats in his Sub-Division.

(i)Direct Election  The Panches and Sarpanches of the Gram Panchayats and Members of Panchayat Samitis and Zila Parishad are elected directly through Universal Adult Franchise.

(ii) Indirect Election   The Chairman and Vice-Chairman of the Panchayat Samitis and President and Vice-President of the Zila Parishads are elected by the elected members  of the Panchayat Samitis and Zila Parishads at the first meeting of these bodies to be held on such date within four weeks of the date the names of elected members are published by the State Election Commission.

(i)  Under the provision of Section 7 of the 1994 Act, a village or a part of a village or group of a contiguous villages with a population of not less than five hundred can be constituted as a Gram Panchayat by the State Government.

(II) Under the provisions contained in  Section 8 of the 1994 Act  read with Rule 3 of the 1994 Rules, the number of wards of the Gram Panchayats shall be from six to twenty depending upon the population of the Sabha Area (i.e. Gram Panchayat)

Under Section 50 of the 1994 Act, the Government is empowered to constitute a Panchayat Samiti having jurisdiction in a Block excluding such portion of the block as are included in a municipality. 

Under the provisions of Section 58  of the  1994 Act,  the total number of wards of the Panchayat Samiti shall not be less than ten and not more than thirty.  The scale of the population  of a ward of Panchayat Samiti is four thousand population or part thereof,  in the case of Panchayat Samiti area having population upto forty thousand and five thousand population or part thereof, in the case of Panchayat Samiti area, having population of more than forty thousand.

What are the provisions of law for constituting a Zila Parishad and number of its wards?

Under Section 117 of the 1994 Act, the Government is empowered to constitute a Zila Parishad  having jurisdiction over the entire district excluding such portion of the district as are included in a municipality. 

Section 119  of the  1994 Act provides that the number of wards of a Zila Parishad  shall not be more than thirty and not less than 10.  The scale of population of a ward of Zila Parishad has been prescribed as one ward for every fifty thousand population. Normally every district has the one Zila Parishad which is  named after the name of the district.

Under Rule 4 of the 1994 Rules, the following matters are taken into consideration for formation of wards:-

(a) The Panchayat area is divided into as many  wards as the number of seats for Panches, in such manner that the population of each ward, as far as practicable, shall be same throughout the Sabha area.

(b) The wards in Sabha area/Gram Panchayats are demarcated keeping in view the compactness of houses on ground and similarly in the case of wards of Panchayat Samitis and Zila Parishads, the compactness of villages on ground, as far as possible, are kept in view by demarcating the wards. 

(c) Besides this, the Sabha area i.e. Gram Panchayat is as far as possible, completely included in a ward  of a Panchayat Samiti or Zila Parishad. 

(d) Every ward is assigned  a separate serial number at each level of Panchayats i.e. Gram Panchayats, Panchayat Samitis and Zila Parishad.

(I) Under Rule 5 of the 1994 Rules,  a ward or wards in which seats   shall be reserved for Women and  members of the Scheduled Classes or Backward Classes, are determined by the Sub-Divisional Officer (Civil) in the case of Gram Panchayats and Panchayat Samitis and the Deputy Commissioner in the case of Zila Parishad.

(II) The wards reserved for Women (i.e. General Category) are effected out of the Unreserved wards  by draw of lots.  Similarly the wards reserved for Women belonging to the Scheduled Castes are effected by draw of lots out of the wards reserved for the Scheduled Castes category. 

The seat reserved for Backward Classes is allotted to the ward which has maximum number of Backward Classes population.

Under Section 3(2) of the 1994 Act, an election to constitute a Gram Panchayat, Panchayat Samiti or Zila Parishad, as the case may be, shall be completed :-

(a) before the expiry of its duration;

(b) before the expiry of a period of six months from the date of its dissolution.

Under Section 57 of the 1994 Act, every Panchayat Samiti (constituted under Section 56), shall consist of directly elected members from the territorial constituencies i.e. wards which shall be not less than ten and not more than thirty. A Panchayat Samiti shall also have a Chairman and Vice-Chairman who shall be elected by and from amongst the elected members in a meeting convened for the purpose by the Sub-Divisional Officer (Civil). under Section 57(2) of the 1994 Act read with  Rule 76 of the  1994 Rules.

The ex-officio members have no right to vote at the time of election of the Chairman and Vice-Chairman.  However, they can exercise this right in other matters including at the time of cancellation of No Confidence Motion as Chairman or Vice-Chairman.