New Delhi. Expressing displeasure with the state government for removing the elected woman sarpanch of a remote village in Chhattisgarh for “improper reasons”, the Supreme Court on Monday said the state government wants the sarpanch to “go before the babu (bureaucrat) with a begging bowl”. .
A bench of Justice Surya Kant and Justice Ujjal Bhuiyan has imposed a fine of Rs 1 lakh on the state government for mental harassment suffered by Sonam Lakra, a woman sarpanch of a village in Jashpur district, which is to be paid in four weeks.
“This is a case of arbitrariness on the part of the authorities in removing an elected sarpanch, a young woman who thought of serving her village in a remote area of Chhattisgarh,” the bench said.
“Instead of appreciating his commitments or cooperating with him or helping him in his efforts for the development of his village, he was treated completely unfairly,” the bench said. The top court termed as a ‘worthless excuse’ the initiation of proceedings to remove him from the post of Sarpanch due to delay in supply of construction material and completion of construction work.
The top court in its order said, “Construction works involve vagaries of weather apart from timely supply of engineers, contractors and materials and hence, how can the Sarpanch be held responsible for delay in the construction works, unless “It is not found that there was a delay in the allocation of work or in performing any specific duty assigned.” He said, “We are satisfied that the initiation of proceedings was a baseless pretext and the appellant was removed from the post of Sarpanch under false pretenses.”
Setting aside the removal order passed by the Sub-Divisional Officer (Revenue), the bench reinstated the woman to the post of sarpanch till the completion of her tenure. The bench said, “Since the appellant has been harassed and has to face avoidable litigation, we order him to pay Rs 1 lakh, which will be paid by the State of Chhattisgarh within four weeks.” The bench said that the state is free to recover the amount from the officers responsible for harassing the woman.