India Supreme Court Refers Two Child Disqualification Rules

The Supreme Court of India has referred the constitutionality of laws disqualifying people with more than two children from local elected office to a larger bench, calling their continued rationale into question as India’s fertility rate falls. The referral reopens the issue decided in the court’s 2003 Javed ruling, which upheld a similar disqualification provision. It does not itself invalidate the laws. The case was brought by Mangala Bhimrao Ingle, who was disqualified from her post as sarpanch of the Kakoda gram panchayat in Maharashtra under Section 141j1 of the Maharashtra Village Panchayats Act, 1959. Authorities found that she had more than two children, and the Bombay High Court upheld the disqualification in 2025. The Supreme Court bench, comprising Justices P.S. Narasimha and Alok Aradhe, said India’s total fertility rate had fallen from about 3 in 2003 to 1.9. The court noted that 2.1 is the replacement rate, at which one generation can replace itself, and said the decline could contribute to an older population and a smaller share of working-age people. In its reasoning, the bench said the demographic changes weakened the basis for measures intended to control...