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India Supreme Court upholds state public employment policy barring candidates with 2+ children – JURIST

The India Supreme Court on Thursday upheld a Rajasthan state law that provides for a two-child eligibility criterion for seeking public employment. The court held that the the Rajasthan Various Service (Amendment) Rules, 2001, which bars candidates who have more than two children from seeking government jobs, is constitutional and non-discriminatory.With the court’s Thursday decision, it dismissed the appeal filed by the petitioner who had applied for a constable’s post in Rajasthan Police and got his candidature rejected on the ground that he had more than two children born after June 1, 2002. The candidature of the petitioner was rejected under the Rajasthan Various Service (Amendment) Rules, 2001, under Rule 24(4), which provides that “no candidate shall be eligible for appointment to the job who has more than two children on or after June 1, 2002.”The bench of Justices Surya Kant, Diapankar Datta and K V Vishwanathan, while relying on a pre-decided case of Javed and others vs. State of Haryana, observed, “This Court held that the classification, which disqualifies candidates for having more than two living children, was non-discriminatory and intra-vires the Constitution, since the objective behind the provision was to promote family planning.”The Rajasthan High Court had previously rejected the petitioner’s appeal in October 2022 on the ground that this issue falls within the realm of policy and does not warrant any interference by the court. Thursday’s judgment comes as a result of the petitioner’s appeal to the Supreme Court. The court’s decision is also eleven years after the case of Javed and others vs. State of Haryana where the court had upheld similar provision introduced as an eligibility to contest grass-root level elections.