Jaipur:<\/strong> In a significant ruling ahead of the Panchayati Raj elections, the Rajasthan High Court has held that a husband cannot be forced to pay dues recoverable from his wife, a former Sarpanch, merely to obtain a No-Dues Certificate and contest an election.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Justice Anoop Kumar Dhand directed the authorities to forthwith issue a No-Dues\/No-Objection Certificate to petitioner Ramlaxman Meena, enabling him to contest the upcoming election from Gram Panchayat Falenda.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The petitioner\u2019s wife, Laxmi Bai, had served as Sarpanch of Gram Panchayat Falenda during the 1995\u20132000 tenure. Following an inquiry concerning certain Panchayat works, a recovery order was passed against her. When the amount was not deposited, the authorities subsequently initiated attachment and auction proceedings against her property to recover the outstanding dues.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Laxmi Bai challenged the recovery proceedings before the High Court in 2009, following which a coordinate Bench, on September 16, 2009, stayed the auction of her property. The petition remains pending.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The petitioner subsequently sought a No-Dues Certificate to contest the upcoming Panchayati Raj election. However, the authorities refused to issue the certificate, citing the outstanding dues against his wife.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Before the High Court, the petitioner argued that the recovery was solely against his wife and that he was neither a surety nor a guarantor for the amount. The State, on the other hand, contended that he was required to clear the dues before being permitted to contest the election.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Rejecting the State\u2019s stand, the High Court held that the recovery liability was personal to the erstwhile Sarpanch and could not automatically be imposed upon her husband.<\/p>\n\n\n\n However, the petitioner himself was not a party liable for the recovery.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The State argued that the petitioner, being the husband of the former Sarpanch, could not be issued a No-Dues Certificate until the outstanding amount was paid.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The High Court rejected the stand.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The Court held that the liability of the former Sarpanch cannot automatically be transferred to her husband or other family members. It noted that neither the Rajasthan Panchayati Raj Act, 1994 nor the Rules of 1996 authorises recovery of a Sarpanch\u2019s dues from family members.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cBoth husband and wife are separate entities\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n The Court observed, that one spouse cannot be held liable for the misconduct or alleged financial liability of the other unless there is material showing that the spouse was also involved.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The Court further held that if the authorities establish that the petitioner himself was involved in the Panchayat works or any misconduct along with his wife during her tenure, the position could be different. In the absence of such a finding, however, he could not be forced to discharge her liability.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The Court further observed that a public representative is personally responsible for his or her own misconduct and that such liability cannot become a civil or penal liability for family members.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Calling the authorities\u2019 insistence that the petitioner pay his wife\u2019s dues an instance of \u201cnon-application of mind,\u201d the Court held the action to be unwarranted.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The High Court accordingly allowed the writ petition and directed the respondents to issue the No-Dues\/No-Objection Certificate to the petitioner forthwith, enabling him to contest the forthcoming Panchayati Raj elections.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Liability for Former Sarpanch\u2019s Dues Cannot Be Transferred to Husband; Authorities Directed to Issue No-Dues Certificate Forthwith Jaipur: In a significant ruling ahead of the Panchayati Raj elections, the Rajasthan High Court has held that a husband cannot be forced to pay dues recoverable from his wife, a former Sarpanch, merely to obtain a No-Dues … Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":9219,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_wppp_is_locked":false,"_wppp_selected_plans":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[29,69],"tags":[2721,2716,2722,2717,282,961,2654,2723,2714,2715,317,2719,2713,659,43,278,2720,2724,2718],"class_list":["post-9557","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-top-stories","category-rajasthan-high-court","tag-election-eligibility","tag-former-sarpanch","tag-gram-panchayat-falenda","tag-husband-and-wife-liability","tag-jaipur-news","tag-judicial-ruling","tag-justice-anup-kumar-dhand","tag-laxmi-bai","tag-no-dues-certificate","tag-no-objection-certificate","tag-panchayat-elections","tag-panchayati-raj-act","tag-panchayati-raj-elections","tag-rajasthan-hc","tag-rajasthan-high-court","tag-rajasthan-judiciary","tag-rajasthan-panchayati-raj-rules","tag-ramlaxman-meena","tag-sarpanch-dues"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lawsandlegals.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9557","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lawsandlegals.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lawsandlegals.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lawsandlegals.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lawsandlegals.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9557"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/lawsandlegals.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9557\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9559,"href":"https:\/\/lawsandlegals.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9557\/revisions\/9559"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lawsandlegals.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/9219"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lawsandlegals.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9557"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lawsandlegals.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9557"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lawsandlegals.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9557"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}