ARTICLE 243E

Article 243E:

Article 243E deals with Duration of Panchayats. It states that –

• Every Panchayat, unless dissolved earlier, will continue for five years.
  
  
• An election to constitute a Panchayat shall be completed –
  • before the expiry of its 5-year duration
    
    
  • before the expiration of a period of six months from the date of its dissolution
    
    
  
  
  
• A Panchayat constituted upon the dissolution of a Panchayat before the expiration of its duration will continue only for the remainder of the 5-year period.
  
  

Recent controversy:

• Earlier, the Supreme Court (SC) directed the West Bengal State election commission (WBSEC) to conduct probe into the fact that a large number of seats in the recently-concluded Panchayat elections in the State went uncontested.
  
  
• It also directed WBSEC to not declare in the gazette the names of those candidates who had won unopposed.
  
  
• In this background, The West Bengal government informed the SC that this has led to a “constitutional crisis” as the tenure of several panchayats under Article 243(E) of the Constitution was over but new bodies have not been made functional.
  
  
• Supreme Court has listed the matter for further hearing on August 20.