Supreme Court refers the two-child disqualification ruling in Javed to a larger bench

4 November 2026

The Supreme Court has held that laws penalising people for having more than two children have lost their relevance, and has referred the 2003 judgment in Javed v. State of Haryana to a larger bench. Javed, decided by three judges, had upheld a provision of the Haryana Panchayati Raj Act, 1994 that disqualified candidates with more than two living children from local body elections. The present case came from Mangala Bhimrao, a former Sarpanch of Kakoda Gram Panchayat, who was disqualified under Section 14(1)(j-1) of the Maharashtra Village Panchayat Act, 1959 after the birth of her third child. Justices P.S. Narasimha and Alok Aradhe set aside the disqualification. The bench noted that India's total fertility rate has fallen from 3 at the time of Javed to 1.9, below the replacement level of 2.1, and warned of an ageing population. It said such a bar excludes a whole class of citizens from political representation and touches reproductive autonomy under Article 21. The Court asked counsel to compile a list of State laws that bar candidates with more than two children.