Madhya Pradesh terminates services of two judges for violating ‘two-child’ mandate

The Madhya Pradesh government has terminated the services of two additional district judges (trainees) for violating the two-child rule that makes employees ineligible for service if their third child was born after January 26, 2001..According to Indian Express, the two judges who have been terminated are Additional District judges Manoj Kumar and Ashraf Ali, who were posted in Gwalior and Jabalpur respectively..The decision to terminate the services of the two judges was taken after the recommendation to that effect by the administrative committee of Madhya Pradesh High Court under Rule 9C of the Madhya Pradesh Higher Judicial Service (Recruitment and Condition of Service) Rules, 1994.According to Express, State government had recently issued a gazette notification quoting sub-rules 5 and 6 of Madhya Pradesh Civil Services (General Condition of Service) Rules, 1961, laying down that trainees are not eligible for service or recruitment if they have more than two living children, one of whom is born after January 26, 2001..The two-child policy came about pursuant to an amendment to the Rules made in the year 2000. The amended Rule 6(5) thus states,.“A candidate shall be eligible for appointment only when, as per amendment brought about by the Government of Rule 6 of Madhya Pradesh Civil Services (General Conditions of Service) Rules 1961, dated 10-03-2000. .(a) A male candidate is not married before 21 and a female candidate before 18 years of age..(b) The candidate doesn’t have a third offspring after 26th of January 2001.”