Supreme Court of India. (Picture PTI File)
New Delhi, June 15 (PTI): A plea has been filed with the Supreme Court asking for instructions from the Center to determine the feasibility of enacting a strict population control law to guarantee the basic rights of citizens.
The plea filed by spiritual speaker Devkinandan Thakur said that it is necessary to control the population explosion to ensure the basic rights of citizens as it is the root cause of all problems.
“The facts constituting the cause of action accrued on December 10, 2020, when the Center declared that it was against forcing family planning and would not take coercive action. The Center fulfilled its obligation although ‘Population Control and Family Planning’ is mentioned in the concurrent list.Therefore, the Center can develop laws and regulatory policies to control the population explosion, which is the greatest threat to democracy and socio-economic development.He has not even drafted a bill to date.
“The harm to citizens, especially women, is extremely significant. The perils of population explosion on the economy and its ramifications are often discussed. But, the impact that repeat pregnancies have on women is rarely put prominently outside of niche areas multiparity, which is defined as more than 4 live births, in developing countries like India is 20% while it is only 2% in developed countries “said the plea filed by attorney Ashutosh Dubey.
Advocacy argued that the right to clean air, clean water, health and livelihood guaranteed by Articles 21-21A cannot be guaranteed to all citizens without effective population control.
He also requested instructions from the Law Commission of India to review the population control laws and population control policies of developed countries and suggest measures to secure basic rights.
The Centre, in another petition, had previously told the Supreme Court that India is unequivocally against forcing family planning on its people and that any coercion to have a certain number of children is counterproductive and leads to demographic distortions.
In an affidavit filed in the High Court, the Department of Health said the family protection program in the country was voluntary in nature, allowing couples to decide on their family size and adopt the family planning methods that suit them best, according to their choice and without any constraint.
The submission was made in response to a PIL filed by Barrister Ashwini Kumar Upadhyay challenging a Delhi High Court order that rejected a plea requesting certain measures, including the two-child standard, to control the growing population of the country.
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Source: PTI