Patna: A local court in Bihar has ruled that people with three children can’t contest the local body polls while dismissing the plea challenging the municipal law enacted by the state government.
A division bench of the Patna High Court comprising chief justice Rajendra Menon and justice Sudhir Singh made these observations on Tuesday while hearing a writ application filed by Brahmanand Singh.
Singh had challenged the legality and validity of the law describing it as the violation of a man’s fundamental rights.
However, the counsel of the State Election Commission Amit Srivastava justified the act saying it was aimed at containing population boom.
After hearing both sides, the court dismissed the plea ruled in favour of the state government.
The Bihar government had passed a municipal law in 2007 under which any person having more than two children after April 1, 2008 were declared unfit for contesting the local civic body polls.
“A person shall be disqualified for election or after the election for holding the post as member of the municipality if such person has more than two living children,” the Bihar Municipal Act states.
The new law has proved a bane for two councillors who lost their job for having more than two children. In 2014, an elected people’s representative in Bihar was thrown out of job for bearing the third child.
Councillor Ravi Shankar Kumar lost his job after he concealed the fact about himself being the father of three children in a written affidavit filed before the state election commission (SEC).
Earlier, another councillor Arun Ravidas had lost his job in 2011 when he bore third child after being elected to the post. He had only one daughter when he contested the election for ward councillor seat in 2007 but later he became the father of two more daughters unmindful of the new legislator, thus costing him his job.
