Third Child Born After Failed Sterilisation No Ground to Deny ACP Under Two-Child Rule: Rajasthan High Court

The petitioner already had two children, both born before 01.06.2002. His wife underwent a ligation operation on 18.09.2011; it failed, and a third child was born afterwards (para 2). As one of his three children was born after 01.06.2002, the State authorities refused him ACP (para 2). After a letter of 13.07.2017 he produced a certificate from the doctor who performed the tubal ligation and the hospital registration of the admission, but the authorities treated the certificate as doubtful, ambiguous and suspicious (paras 3-4). The State argued that the original certificate bore no registration number or date, so its veracity was rightly doubted (para 5).

The certificate recorded the operation of 18.09.2011; it bore no date, though several doctors had signed it. On 28.08.2017 the operating doctor certified the operation, and the registration showed admission and operation on 18.09.2011 and discharge the next day (para 7). The certificate could not be called ambiguous or suspicious, and the authorities ought to have taken a pragmatic view (para 8). Under the memorandum (para 9), an employee with more than two children on or after 01.06.2002 is not granted the next ACP for three years, delaying later upgradations; it does not consider the circumstances in which a third child is born (para 10). Undergoing the operation showed the couple's intention not to have a third child, and they cannot be penalised if a child is born because it failed. Such exceptions are inherent in the rule and need not be written into it. The rule aims to deter Government servants from having a third child, so it cannot deprive an employee of service benefits for a child born without deliberate intent (para 11). The memorandum therefore cannot be applied by a blanket order; the circumstances must be examined (para 12).