Kendrapara: A Kendrapara district court has set side the election of a sarpanch (village head) as he was found to be a father of more than two children, a violation of the provisions of the Odisha Gram Panchayat Act.
Haripada Behera, Sarapanch of Kora gram panchayat in Kendrapada block, was unseated after the civil judge (junior division) of Kendrapara delivered the judgement yesterday.
Behera had violated the "two-child-norm" as he filed nomination papers in the last panchayat polls. Behera`s rival candidates had at the time demanded that his nomination papers be rejected as he has five children.
However, their demand was not met and Behera got elected as sarpanch. Later, one of the defeated candidates filed a case in the civil court stating that as per Section 11 of the Odisha Gram Panchayat Act, a person having more than two children is not entitled to contest the panchayat election.
The court after examining the evidence, set aside the election of Behera as he had more than two children.
