No Fundamental Right Violated By Law Disqualifying Persons With More Than Two Children From Contesting Elections: Telangana High Court

The Telangana High Court has dismissed a writ petition challenging vires of Section 21(3) of the Telangana Panchayat Raj Act 2018 restricting the eligibility of a person to contest elections to the panchayat on grounds of having more than two children.

The petitioner contended that while the matter had already been dealt with by the Supreme Court in Javed v. State of Haryana (2003) (on a similar legislation by the State of Haryana being Haryana Panchayat Raj Act, 1994) the matter at hand was different.

The petitioner argued that Haryana Panchayat Raj Act, 1994 had received the assent of the President whereas the Telangana Panchayat Raj Act, 2018 was not sent for such assent and in fact notified on the basis of assent of the Governor of the State itself, which is in teeth of the proviso to Article 31C of the Constitution of India.

The proviso states "Provided that where such law is made by the Legislature of a State, the provisions of this article shall not apply thereto unless such law, having been reserved for the consideration of the President, has received his assent.”

The Division Bench of Chief Justice Aparesh Kumar Singh and Justice G.M Mohiuddin noted that the matter had already been dealt with by the high court in a batch of writs considering the order passed by the Supreme Court in Javed v. State of Haryana.

"We have conferred anxious consideration to this issue, but we fail to decipher as to how the impugned provision under the Act of 2018 would amount to infraction of the right conferred by Articles 14 or 19 of the Constitution of India. We are strengthened by the observations made by the Apex Court in the case of Javed (supra) at page No.59, wherein it has been categorically held that there is no fundamental right to any person to stand as a candidate for election to the Municipality".

The court said that this disqualification in the Telangana Panchayat Raj Act does not violate that fundamental right to practice any profession or carry any occupation, trade or business.

"The Apex Court further observed that disqualification on the right to contest an election by having more than two living children does not contravene any fundamental right nor it crosses the limits of reasonability.Rather, it is a disqualification conceptually devised in national interest. With the disqualification made by the Apex Court, the novel plea raised on behalf of the petitioners to once again question the vires of Section 21(3) of the Act of 2018 has to fail also in view of the pronouncements of the Co-ordinate Bench of this Court on a similar challenge.

The petition was dismissed. 

Case title: Uppu Veeranna v/s State of Telangana

WP 32746 of 2025

Counsel for petitioner: Vijay Gopal

Counsel for respondent: Shazia Parveen, GP for Panchayat Raj. P. Sudheer Rao, Senior counsel.

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