Uttarakhand is facing a constitutional crisis in rural governance after the Raj Bhavan returned the Panchayati Raj ordinance without approval. The ordinance, intended to reappoint administrators in the state’s three-tier panchayats, has been sent back due to unresolved legal objections raised earlier by the legislative department.
As a result, 10,760 panchayats across the state—excluding Haridwar’s 318 village panchayats—are currently without elected leadership. This includes 7,478 gram panchayats, 2,941 block-level panchayats, and 341 district panchayats.
Previously, the legislative department had objected to the ordinance on constitutional grounds, stating that once an ordinance is returned, it cannot be resubmitted in the same form. Despite this, the Panchayati Raj department forwarded the proposal to the Governor.
According to Governor’s Secretary Ravinath Raman, the ordinance lacked clarity and was submitted without resolving key legal points. Therefore, it has been returned for further review.
In 2021, a similar ordinance was introduced to amend the 2016 Panchayati Raj Act, which received approval from Raj Bhavan but was never passed in the Assembly. At that time, elections were conducted in Haridwar immediately after the ordinance’s implementation, leaving the legislative process incomplete.
This is the first time the state is experiencing such a governance vacuum in its panchayati system, raising serious concerns about rural administration and service delivery.
