The Supreme Court refused to entertain a petition filed by BJP leader and advocate Ashwini Upadhyay and others seeking a direction to the Law Commission to prepare a comprehensive policy or legislation to deal with population control..A bench comprising Justices SK Kaul and AS Oka refused to entertain the plea reasoning that such a direction could not be made by it. "Now court will decide that? There has to be some reasonableness," the Court said..Upadhyay then proceeded to withdraw his plea..The Court rejected Upadhyay's argument that while India only had 2 per cent of the world's land, it had 20 per cent of its population. "One day population cannot be wiped out. How can even Law Commission be directed," Justice Kaul asked. "The problem is emanating from something which the executive Government of the day has to look into. This cannot be a subject matter of report by a Law Commission or a debate before this Court", the order noted. .The batch of petitions heard along with Upadhyay's plea raised objection to a December 2020 statement by the Central government where it said that it was against coercive family planning.The effect of multiple pregnancies on the health of mothers and babies, as also the significant population of the poor in the country, were highlighted as reasons why a central population control law is necessary..The Supreme Court is "entitled to evolve the New Principles of Liability" to guarantee the remedy of enforcement of fundamental rights, and do complete justice to anyone aggrieved, one of the pleas further said..The other pleas were also dismissed accordingly by means of the instant order. [Read order].[Read our live-coverage of the hearing here]
The Supreme Court refused to entertain a petition filed by BJP leader and advocate Ashwini Upadhyay and others seeking a direction to the Law Commission to prepare a comprehensive policy or legislation to deal with population control..A bench comprising Justices SK Kaul and AS Oka refused to entertain the plea reasoning that such a direction could not be made by it. "Now court will decide that? There has to be some reasonableness," the Court said..Upadhyay then proceeded to withdraw his plea..The Court rejected Upadhyay's argument that while India only had 2 per cent of the world's land, it had 20 per cent of its population. "One day population cannot be wiped out. How can even Law Commission be directed," Justice Kaul asked. "The problem is emanating from something which the executive Government of the day has to look into. This cannot be a subject matter of report by a Law Commission or a debate before this Court", the order noted. .The batch of petitions heard along with Upadhyay's plea raised objection to a December 2020 statement by the Central government where it said that it was against coercive family planning.The effect of multiple pregnancies on the health of mothers and babies, as also the significant population of the poor in the country, were highlighted as reasons why a central population control law is necessary..The Supreme Court is "entitled to evolve the New Principles of Liability" to guarantee the remedy of enforcement of fundamental rights, and do complete justice to anyone aggrieved, one of the pleas further said..The other pleas were also dismissed accordingly by means of the instant order. [Read order].[Read our live-coverage of the hearing here]