India’s Two-Child Election Rule Faces a Supreme Court Rethink

India’s total fertility rate is now 1.9, down from 3 in 2003 and below the 2.1 replacement level. On Wednesday, the Supreme Court said this shift has weakened the case for laws barring people with more than two children from local elections. It overturned former Maharashtra sarpanch Mangala Bhimrao Ingle’s disqualification and sent the legal question to a larger bench. ^2,4

Ingle lost her post after officials found she had a third child. Maharashtra’s Village Panchayats Act bars people with more than two children from serving as a panchayat member or sarpanch. The rule took effect in 2000. Ingle challenged her disqualification after the Bombay High Court upheld it in 2025. The Supreme Court bench, made up of Justices PS Narasimha and Alok Aradhe, also sent its 2003 Javed v. State of Haryana ruling for reconsideration. That earlier decision upheld a similar rule in Haryana. ^3,5

The 1.9 rate matters because it is below the level needed for one generation to replace itself, the court said. India’s population is not yet declining, but the judges warned that lower fertility could lead to an older population and a smaller share of working-age people. They also questioned whether having more than two children says anything meaningful about someone’s ability to hold public office. Such bans, they said, can force people to choose between having children and taking part in democracy, raising concerns about reproductive rights under Article 21. ^4,6

The challenge to the old rule is not yet a final ruling that all two-child bans are invalid. The Supreme Court paused proceedings in Ingle’s case and sent the constitutional question to a larger bench, which must decide whether these election restrictions can stand. The sources give no date for the next hearing. ^1,5