The Supreme Court held that a previous ruling from 1974 regarding additional sales tax remains applicable today.

NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court on Wednesday remarked that laws penalising people for having more than two children have “lost relevance”, saying that the “fear of overpopulation” has “crumbled” due to “demographic changes over the past few decades.“A bench of Justices PS Narasimha and Alok Aradhe made the observation while hearing a plea filed by Mangala Bhimrao Ingle, whose election as sarpanch of Maharashtra’s Kakoda gram panchayat was set aside on the ground that she was disqualified from contesting the polls for having more than two children, in violation of the Maharashtra Village Panchayats Act, 1959.The bench referred the matter to a larger bench for reconsideration of the 2003 judgment in Javed versus State of Haryana. In that ruling, the Supreme Court had upheld the disqualification of people with more than two living children from contesting or holding panchayat positions under the Haryana Panchayati Raj Act, 1994.“We are of the strong opinion that laws that penalise having more than two children have lost their relevance. The foundation of such laws, i.e. the fear of overpopulation, has crumbled due to demographic changes in the past few decades,” PTI quoted the bench as saying.The judges noted that India’s total fertility rate (TFR) had fallen from 3.0 in 2003 to 1.9, below the replacement rate of 2.1. It warned that this could lead to an ageing population and a decline in the share of the working-age population.The top court cautioned that ignoring these demographic changes could have “serious consequences” for the country.The bench further stated that the two-child policy laws “exclude” an entire section of citizens from political representation and force them to choose between having children and participating in democracy, infringing on their right to reproductive autonomy under Article 21.“It would be dangerously complacent to ignore the consequences of India’s changing population growth rate merely because it already has a large population — the stakes are too high,” it added.Warning of a potentially irreversible decline in fertility, the bench cautioned that India could soon face an ageing population with a disproportionately large share of people beyond working age.

Referring to China’s shift from its one-child policy to allowing three children, the bench highlighted the risks of treating declining fertility as a policy achievement.“The Chinese experience therefore demonstrates the danger inherent in treating fertility reduction as a policy achievement capable of being calibrated at will,” it said.Recalling its 2003 judgment in the Javed case, the court remarked: “We cannot ride into the future on a horse that is dead. It is not the strongest of the species that survives nor the most intelligent, but the most responsive to change.”