Telangana HC dismisses plea challenging 2-child norm for panchayat polls

The division bench of Chief Justice Aparesh Kumar Singh and Justice G M Mohiuddin observed: “We have conferred anxious consideration to this issue but we fail to decipher as to how the impugned provision (Section 21(3)) under the Act of 2018, could amount to infraction of the right conferred by Article 14 or 19 of the Constitution of India.”

Vijay Gopal, the counsel for the petitioners, contended that though the two-child norm has been challenged earlier too, his argument was on the grounds that the Telangana Panchayat Raj Act did not receive the President’s assent and was notified on the basis of the assent of the Governor.

He cited the 2003 judgment in the case of Haryana, where the law that disqualified individuals with more than two children from holding office in a gram panchayat was upheld by the Supreme Court, and argued that the same has been consented to by the President. Gopal pointed out that Telangana’s legislation was not consented to by the president and hence deemed to be void.

The court noted that its observations were “strengthened” by the 2003 Haryana judgment of the Supreme Court, where “it has been categorically held that there is no fundamental right in any person to stand as a candidate for election.” The impugned disqualification does not violate the fundamental right to practice any profession or occupation, trade or business, the bench added.

The high court recalled the Supreme Court’s observations that “a disqualification to contest an election by having more than two living children does not contravene any fundamental right nor does it cross the limits of reasonability. Rather, it is a disqualification conceptually devised in national interest.”

Citing these points, the Court ruled that “the novel argument or plea raised on behalf of the petitioner to once again question the vires (validity) of section 21(3) of the Act of 2018 has to fail, also in view of the pronouncements of the coordinate bench of this court on a similar challenge.”