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‘Don’t disown kids to get elected’: SC upholds Sena leader’s removal
Anita Magar was disqualified under the state’s two-child norm to run for public office.
One should not “disown” her or his child only to grab a political post, observed the Supreme Court on Monday while upholding the disqualification of a Shiv Sena leader whose election as a corporator of the Solapur Municipal Corporation in Maharashtra was set aside for having more than two children.
“You have put a cross to bear for your child just because you wanted to get elected. Don’t disown your children only because you want to get elected and get a political post,” said a bench of justices Sanjay Kishan Kaul and Hemant Gupta while dismissing the petition filed by Anita Magar.
Magar challenged an order by the Bombay high court, which noted that there was enough evidence on record to show that Magar and her husband had three children on the date of filing of her nomination, and therefore, she was disqualified under the state’s two-child norm to run for public office.
In her appeal, Magar told the top court that she only had two biological children, and the third child was not hers, but of her brother-in-law. She also asked the court to interfere in the interest of the girl child since her parentage was now in question.
“The child has a birth certificate that mentions a different couple as her parents but the high court has called Magar and her husband as her parents. This case requires consideration to protect the child,” Magar’s lawyer said.
Dismissing Magar’s petition, the bench said: “In your anxiety to get elected, you only created such a scenario. They are identified as your children in the school. And then the birth certificate was changed. To get over the legal requirements, all this is done. We cannot help you. You should think of your child.”
On May 24, the Bombay high court upheld a 2018 civil court order that set aside Magar’s election as corporator of the Solapur Municipal Corporation in the polls conducted in 2017. Magar and three others contested from a ward in Solapur, and she was declared elected.
