Bengaluru: The Supreme Court of India has issued a notice to the Centre over a petition filed by BJP spokesperson and advocate Ashwini Kumar Upadhyay in relation to the two-child policy. 

Ashwini Upadhyay had filed a petition at the Delhi high court but the court had dismissed it last September. However, the top court took it up, with chief justice of India Arvind Bobde heading a bench that also includes BR Gavai and Surya Kant. 

Upadhyay submitted in his petition that two-child norm should be declared as a criterion for government jobs and subsidies and persons failing to adhere should be stripped of their statutory rights including right to vote and contest elections.

“Population explosion is root cause of most of our problems including shortage of drinking water, forests, land, food, clothes, house, poverty and unemployment, hunger and malnutrition and air, water, soil and sound pollution,” the petition stated. 

The petitioner also had given a presentation to the Prime Minister on the same issue last year after PM Modi had stressed on the need to control population in his Independence Day speech on August 15, 2019. 

More on two-child policy: 

Having a cap on the number of children means that the population will be under check. Though it’s not a BJP poll manifesto promise (Lok Sabha 2019), it can be looked into as it ensures fair distribution of natural resources.
 
Vivek Reddy, a BJP spokesperson said, “The full capacity and potential of the nation are being exhibited with these reforms (abrogation and CAA). And if India has to truly excel on the world stage, it has to focus on its bursting population and bring it to saner levels. A two-child policy which I personally feel is an important issue has to be gone into. This will ensure people will have enough natural resources at their disposal.”