People increasingly
prefer redressal of their complaints through police stations and courts as they
feel that many village sarpanches are not educated enough, legally or
otherwise, to make the right decisions Dinapur Cantonment,
Bihar: Sanjay Kumar (40) had gone to the&nbsp;gram kachahari&nbsp;(village court)&nbsp;of&nbsp;Danapur&nbsp;regarding a land dispute, but the division that took place there was not
acceptable to him. Later, he had to approach the janta darbar organised by the circle officer at <span style="font-size: 20px; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial;">the police station.&nbsp;“If you do not get justice from the rural court, you will face problems in getting justice in future also. First impression is important. Only a person knowledgeable in law should be brought to this post. Only then will the number of cases reaching the courts reduce,” says Patna&nbsp;High Court advocate Shakeel Akhtar, adding that appointing uneducated women as&nbsp;sarpanches&nbsp;is only giving rise to unnecessary controversy.&nbsp;In Bihar, gram kachaharis&nbsp;have been delivering justice to villagers in the last few decades.
However, the state government’s decision to <span style="background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; font-size: 20px;">reserve the&nbsp;position of&nbsp;<span style="font-size: 20px; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial;">sarpanch&nbsp;to women in the panchayat elections since 2006
has led to a condition where uneducated women occupied that post. This has led to an erosion of faith among villagers
over the functioning of&nbsp;gram kachaharis.Earlier, the decisions of the sarpanch
were accepted as final. Today, despite roping in the panchayat secretary and a government-appointed&nbsp;nyay mitra, only four to five cases&nbsp;—&nbsp;mostly related to
land disputes and religious violence&nbsp;—&nbsp;reach the sarpanch
of a rural court in a month. Even in those cases, people are not
satisfied with the decision of the sarpanch.Gram kachaharis have two types of jurisdiction. Keeping in view that the courts are taking years
to execute the cases in the present judicial system,&nbsp;gram kachaharis has been given criminal jurisdiction under <span style="background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; font-size: 20px;">IPC Sections 106, 107, etc.&nbsp;&nbsp;Despite the panchayati raj department providing the services of
panchayat secretary and&nbsp;<span style="background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; font-size: 20px;">nyay mitra,
the problems associated with decision-making have not been fully solved. The
secretary helps the sarpanch from time to time, while the&nbsp;nyay mitra&nbsp;gives legal advice on the actions and decisions of the sarpanch. <span style="background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial;">All panchayats in Bihar get their services in running gram kachaharis.However, due to the low contracted amount, the sarpanch sometimes faces difficulties. A
sarpanch is paid Rs 5,000 <span style="background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; font-size: 20px;">per
month for all the work that he does in the village<span style="background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; font-size: 20px;">, while a panchayat secretary is paid
Rs 6,000. Nyay mitra, who should be an LLB graduate, is paid&nbsp;Rs 7,000<span style="background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; font-size: 20px;">. Mostly, nyay mitra
is able to give time only one day in a week, while the panchayat secretary is
given the responsibility of more than two panchayats, due to which they find it
difficult to give full time attention.<o:p></o:p>There are <a href="https://egramkachari.bihar.gov.in/">8,053 village panchayats in Bihar</a>. However, 760 (9.44%)
sarpanches are illiterate, of which 498 are women. There are 1,582 female
and 796 male sarpanches (29.53%) who are literate or with below class 8 pass as
educational qualification. The class 8 pass (13.25%) category has 606 women and 462 men,
while class 10 pass category (18.64%) comprises 517 female and 985 male&nbsp;sarpanches.
Class 12 pass category (14.47%) has 342 women and 824 men, while graduate category
(12.15%) has 259 women and 720 men. The postgraduate lot (2.52%) includes 28 women
and 175 male sarpanches. The overall
figures show that the percentage of illiterates or below class 8 pass combined is more
than any other group.&nbsp;According <span style="background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial;">to <a href="https://egramkachari.bihar.gov.in/">government data</a>,&nbsp;more than&nbsp;14,593&nbsp;cases&nbsp;are pending in village
kachaharis from 2021 to 2024, most of which are civil (8,364) and
criminal (6,413) cases. For example, about 1,654 cases are pending in
Bhagalpur district. In view of this, the panchayati raj department had called
meetings and ordered to settle the pending cases as quickly as possible.&nbsp;<div class="embed-container" align="center" style="line-height: 1;"><img src="https://assets.ramen.101reporters.com/inpic/2024/12/101RPT2307825/story_photos_(default)-13.jpg" id="2398498" style="width: 100%;">Panchayat baithak in the village (Photo - Amarjeet Sharma, 101Reporters)</div><div class="embed-container" align="center" style="line-height: 1;"> </div>Legal knowledge mandatory<o:p></o:p>“Sarpanches
who do not have legal knowledge should not be made a rural court judge.&nbsp;It is
necessary that the person should be trained to deal with legal matters and have a bachelor’s degree. Only such qualified
people should be chosen to the post,” says Advocate Tej Narayan Sinha of
the Patna Civil Court.<o:p></o:p>Ankit Kumar (30), the sarpanch
of Gonpura panchayat in Patna, tells 101Reporters
that education is necessary if one has to serve well as a sarpanch. “It should be decided at the time of election that
whoever the candidate is, be it a man or woman, that person should be at least matriculation
pass. However, I feel this is such a post where it will be difficult for anyone
less than a graduate to function well. Sarpanches
also need judicial information and training from time to time,” notes Ankit.<o:p></o:p>Sarpanch Chandan Kumar (40) of Kurkuri panchayat of Phulwari Sharif,
Patna, did not pass&nbsp;<span style="background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; font-size: 20px;">class 10 and&nbsp;knows first-hand the difficulties in handling
gram kachaharis. “I underwent just
two days of judicial training in a camp organised at Danapur Block Office. I was
not even fully informed about how justice should be delivered in gram kachaharis,” he says.<o:p style="font-size: 21.3333px;"><o:p style="font-size: 21.3333px;">However,&nbsp;</o:p>Phulwari Sharif&nbsp;Block Development Officer Vijay Kumar Mishra claims that&nbsp;besides special training in law, booklets are provided so that&nbsp;sarpanches&nbsp;do not face problems in administering justice</o:p>.Phulwari Sharif Police Station head MA
Hydari tells 101Reporters that when
the matter is not resolved in gram
kachaharis, people come to the janta darbar
held in the police station every Saturday. “At the darbar, cases of land disputes are brought to the notice of the zonal officer.
There are <span style="background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial;">magistrates also
at the darbar. At least five to 10 cases are settled every week.”&nbsp;According to&nbsp;Nausha panchayat sarpanch&nbsp;Farzana Khatoon, approaching a formal court also means travel expenses and lawyer's fee, whereas there are no such expenses attached to the village court.&nbsp;Nyay mitra Manoranjan Kumar (42) says that he provides legal advice to the sarpanch whenever needed. “Whenever we
are called for this panchayat work, we go. Also, it is mandatory to go every
Saturday.”However, Manoranjan adds that the contract amount of Rs 7,000 per
month should be increased as it is simply not enough to travel to the panchayat
assigned every week. <o:p></o:p>

























































































































Pramod Kumar Tripathi, an NGO worker from Bhusaula panchayat,
says that in the village court it does not matter if the sarpanch is a woman, but it does matter that she is literate and educated. "If the sarpanch is uneducated, the decisions could be taken by his/her
supporters, or will be as per their wishes." Edited by Rekha PulinnoliCover Photo - Representative image of sarpanch's court in a village (AI generated by Canva)