Supreme court calls for review of two-child laws as fertility drops

UPDATE - follow-up to Falling fertility rate makes two-child penalties outdated in India, says Supreme Court:

Court Ruling

Laws that penalise having more than two children are no longer relevant because of India's falling fertility rate, the Supreme Court held on Wednesday. A Bench headed by Justice P.S. Narasimha stated in a 37-page judgment that the old fear of overpopulation has crumbled due to recent demographic changes. The court called for its 2003 judgment in the Javed versus State of Haryana case, which previously upheld such penal laws, to be looked at again by a larger Bench.

Fertility Data

India's Total Fertility Rate has dropped from 3.02 down to 1.9. The replacement rate needed for one generation to completely replace itself is 2.1. While the country's population is not yet shrinking, the fertility rate falling below the replacement level will soon lead to an older population with fewer working-age people. The share of people aged 60 and above went up from about 8.3 percent in 2014 to 9.7 percent in 2024, and government estimates put that share near 15 percent by 2036.

The Case

The judgment came on a petition by Mangala Bhimrao Ingle, whose election as Sarpanch of the Kakoda gram panchayat in Maharashtra was cancelled because she had more than two children. Lower courts and state authorities found she had a third child in 2014, and ruled that she violated Section 14(1)(j-1) of the Maharashtra Village Panchayats Act, 1959. Justice Narasimha found that laws linking motherhood to political representation violate Article 21 of the Constitution concerning the right to life and reproductive freedom, and permitted the appellant to keep her elected position while staying proceedings against her.

Context

This judgment highlights how shifting population trends force legal systems to reconsider older rules created under entirely different social conditions. The Supreme Court's push to revisit past rulings reflects growing judicial recognition of demographic aging across the country.