Section 5-A: Disqualification for membership

¹[A person shall be disqualified for being chosen as, and for being a member of a Gram Panchayat, if he–

(a) in so disqualified by or under any law for the time being in force for the purposes of elections to the State Legislature :

Provided that no person shall be disqualified on the ground that he is less than twenty-five years of age, if he has attained the age of twenty-one years ;

(b) is a salaried servant of the Gram Panchayat ²[x x x];

(c) holds any offices of profit under a State Government or the Central Government or a ³[local authority, other than a Gram Panchayat ⁴[x x x] or a Board, Body or Corporation owned or controlled by State Government or the Central Government];

(d) has been dismissed from the service of a State Government, the Central Government or a local authority ⁵[x x x] for misconduct;

(e) In arrears of any tax, fee, rate or any other dues payable by him to the Gram Panchayat, Kshettra Panchayat or Zila Panchayat for such period as may be prescribed, or has, in spite of being required to do so by the Gram Panchayat, Nyaya Panchayat, Kshettra Panchayat or Zila Panchayat failed to deliver to it any recored or property belonging to it which had come into his possession by virtue of his holding any office under it ;

(f) is an undischarged insolvent;

(g) has been convicted of an offence involving moral turpitude;

(h) has been sentenced to imprisonment for a term exceeding three months for contravention of any order made under the Essential Commodities Act, 1955;

(i) has been sentenced to imprisonment for a term exceeding six months or to transportation for contravention of any order made under the Essential Supplies (Temporary Powers) Act, 1946 or the U.P. Control of Supplies (Temporary Powers) Act, 1947;

(j) has been sentenced to imprisonment for a term exceeding three months under the U.P. Excise Act, 1910;

(k) has been convicted of an offence under the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotrapic Substances Act, 1985;

(l) has been convicted of an election offence;

(m) has been convicted of an offence under the U.P. Removal of Social Disabilities Act, 1947 or the Protection of Civil Rights Act, 1955; or

(n) has been removed from office under sub-clause (iii) or (iv) of clause (g) of sub-section (1) of section 95 unless such period as has been provided in that behalf in the said section or such lesser period as the State Government may have ordered in any particular case, has elasped :

Provided that the period of disqualification under clauses (d), (f), (g), (h), (i), (j), (k), (l) or (m) shall be five years from such date as may be prescribed :

Provided further that the disqualification under clause (e) shall cease upon payment of arrears or delivery of the record or property, as the case may be :

Provided also that a disqualification under any of the clauses referred to in the first proviso may, in the manner prescribed, be removed by the State Government.]⁶