Ahmedabad, Jun 20 (PTI) The Gujarat High Court today sought the state government's stand on a plea challenging a 2015 amendment to the Gujarat Panchayats Act, curtailing the tenures of presidents and vice presidents of district panchayats to two-and-a-half years from five years.

A division bench of Chief Justice R Subhash Reddy and Justice V M Pancholi sought the government's reply within four weeks.

The amendment to sections 81 and 81 (2) of the act, halving the tenures of district panchayats' key functionaries have been challenged by former presidents of Bhavnagar, Amreli, Ahmedabad and Vadodara district panchayats.

As per the amendment, the term of presidents and vice presidents have been cut down to two and a half years despite the panchayats' term being five years.

It necessitates elections for these posts halfway through the panchayats' terms.

The petitioners contended that this is against the original scheme of the Panchayats Act, and unconstitutional.

Incidentally, the elections to the posts of presidents and vice presidents of over 200 taluka panchayats and 31 district panchayats were held today across Gujarat.

(The above story is verified and authored by Press Trust of India (PTI) staff. PTI, India’s premier news agency, employs more than 400 journalists and 500 stringers to cover almost every district and small town in India.. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)