Mukhiya, Pramukh, Adhyaksha and a village court: the offices the State's panchayat law creates

Background

The Bihar Panchayat Raj Act, 2006 is Bihar Act 6 of 2006, and it replaced the Bihar Panchayat Raj Act, 1993 as amended up to that date. It extends to the whole State except the areas where the Patna Municipal Corporation Act, the Bihar & Orissa Municipal Act or the Cantonment Act apply. The Act gives each tier its own elected head: the Mukhiya of a Gram Panchayat, the Pramukh of a Panchayat Samiti and the Adhyaksha of a Zila Parishad, which the Act defines as the panchayat at the district level; each of the three has a deputy, titled Up-Mukhiya, Up-Pramukh and Up-Adhyaksha. Alongside them the Act provides a Gram Katchahry in every Gram Panchayat area to discharge judicial functions, headed by an elected Sarpanch with directly elected Panches, each Panch representing as nearly as five hundred of the panchayat area's population. On reservation the Act says that, as nearly as but not exceeding fifty percent of the seats not reserved for the Scheduled Castes, the Scheduled Tribes and the Backward Classes shall be reserved for women, with a matching rule inside the reserved seats. Seats are allotted by rotation by the District Magistrate under the direction of the State Election Commission. A Gram Panchayat runs for five years from the date fixed for its first meeting unless dissolved earlier.