Family Planning Versus Democracy

A bizarre rule gets a Mumbai corporator ejected for having more than two children

The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) has a little-known peculiar rule—no corporator is allowed to have more than two children. Brought about in September 2000 under the BMC Act 1888, Section 16(1) B, the rule disqualifies any corporator who had a third child after 2001, while barring anyone with more than two children from contesting a civic election. It was ostensibly effected to promote family planning.

Shaikh Siraj Iliyas, a member of the Congress party who won his seat from Ward No 30 in Malad two years ago, now finds himself prey to this rule. Within a few days of his winning the seat, the runner- up of the constituency, Shiv Sena’s Vishwas Pandurang Ghadigaonkar, had approached a small causes court in Mumbai contending that Iliyas had three children and was thus ineligible to contest the election. “That was the first time I came to know of that rule,” says Iliyas, whose third child, a daughter, was born in 2007.

The court ruled to disqualify Iliyas and he went for an appeal to the Bombay High Court. On 21 November, this court too ruled in Ghadigaonkar’s favour.

Iliyas is now planning to go to the Supreme Court. He says, “What kind of a rule is this? I am a democratically-elected leader. A total of 5,269 people voted for me in an election as prescribed by the Indian Constitution. Now, someone says there is a rule which disqualifies me because I have three children. This rule goes against the spirit of the Constitution. There is no such rule for elections to any other body. Why should there be one for the BMC? Children are God’s gift. Does this BMC rule supersede God’s will?” There is only one other person who was once disqualified under this rule. In 2011, Gulshan Chauhan, an NCP corporator then, was found to have hidden the fact that she had four children.

About The Author

Lhendup G Bhutia

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