Justice Nagarathna Flags Apprehension That Population-Based Delimitation May Reduce Southern States' Representation

Justice BV Nagarathna of the Supreme Court on Friday (May 9) orally spoke about the apprehensions that delimitation based on population would reduce the representation of the southern states in the Parliament, since the population growth in the south is declining in contrast to the northern states. 

The bench comprising Justice Nagarathna and Justice Satish Chandra Sharma was hearing a batch of petitions related to the Surrogacy (Regulation) Act.

While dealing with petitions filed by couples seeking a second child through surrogacy, Justice Nagarathna said, "In South you see, the families are shrinking. Births are coming down in South India...There are so many people in the North who are going on and on having children... There is an apprehension now if they have Delimitation based on population, the number of representatives of the South will be reduced because of the population of North India."

Justice Nagarathna also questioned why the petitioners wanted to opt for surrogacy.

Advocate Mohini Priya for the petitioners, said that they fall under Rule 14 of the Surrogacy (Regulation) Rules, 2022, which says that a woman can opt for Gestational Surrogacy if the women suffers from medical condition so life threatening, or the intended parents failed to conceive it, or the woman has multiple pregnancy losses etc. She said that both couples tried In-vitro fertilisation (IVF) but it failed.

Justice Nagarathna questioned why the couples want to have another child when they already have a biological child who is perfectly healthy. Priya informed that both couples have young girl children and they want to simply extend their family. She added that this is simply in the best interest of the surviving child, and is a matter of personal choice for the couple.

"You see, film land celebrities already have two children. That person has two surrogacies and a third child. It should not become a fashion...Everybody wants to be one now. Nobody wants another," Justice Nagarathna said.

To this, Priya replied: "There are few people who still want to expand their family..."

The Court also asked if one of the couples had an abortion after having determined the sex of the child to be female. Priya responded that the couple didn't have abortion. Moreover, sex determination is not allowed in law.

"Mylords, there was no abortion in this case. She had to terminate the child because there was a life-threatening disorder that she suffered from. We have the doctors recommendation. First child was born in 2016 and for eight years they have been trying another child. There is a genuine medical problem," Priya said.

To this, Justice Nagarathna replied: "We are bursting with population literally. One child biologically, second child through surrogacy...In South you see, the families are shrinking. Births are coming down in South India."

When Priya replied that a similar thing happened in China and the birth rates decreased so drastically that the Government is promoting a two-child policy, Justice Nagarathna replied that such won't happen in India.

"That won't happen in India. There are so many people in the North are going on and going having children... that is an apprehension now if they have Delimitation based on population, the number of representatives of South will be reduced because of the population of North India...If you have one child, why bring in another child. Look at the larger country's interest. So many people, they have decided to not have children. We tell you what the situation is, the in-laws are going for pujas and pilgrimages and the couple have decided not to have children. " Justice Nagarathna said.