Fresh plea by lawyer before Supreme Court on population control
Plea before Supreme Court over population explosion
Delhi HC had earlier dismissed the plea
New Delhi, Nov. 7 (Delhi Crown): A fresh plea filed by a lawyer before the Supreme Court has said that population explosion is the root cause behind many problems faced by the country, including depleting its natural resources.
India’s current population as of November 6, is almost 1.4 billion (1,398,235,375), which equivalent to 17.7 percent of the total world population as per United Nations data.
Asking the Apex Court to make all states and Union Territories parties to his public interest litigation (PIL), lawyer Ashwini Kumar Upadhyay claimed that India’s unrestricted and growing population explosion is responsible not only for the high levels of pollution ravaging cities and villages across the country, but also the cause for dearth of resources and lack of jobs.
Upadhyay urged the court to order governments at the Centre and at the state level to take certain steps, including enforcing the two-child norm on parents, to control the nation’s growing population.
The lawyer had earlier filed his plea in the Delhi High Court, which dismissed it forcing him to seek the intervention of the Supreme Court.
In his plea before the apex court, he said the Delhi High Court has failed to understand or appreciate that every citizen of the country is entitled to clean air, drinking water, health, peaceful sleep, shelter, livelihood and education under Articles 21 and 21A of the Indian Constitution.
Citizens are being denied these rights because of population explosion, he added.
Population explosion is also the root cause of corruption and heinous crimes like rape and domestic violence, Upadhyay said.
In its affidavit filed before the top court, the Centre has said it totally against forced family planning of citizens, believing it will be counter-productive and lead to distortions in society.
It has further informed the court that all family welfare programmes are voluntary in nature and that couples have the right to decide the size of their families and, or, adopt family planning methods best suited to them without any compulsion.
