JUDGMENT :

The question referred to the Division Bench for consideration is “whether the expression ‘two children’ used in Section 14(1)(j-1) of the Maharashtra Village Panchayats Act, 1959 (for short, ‘the Act of 1959’) has been used in a generic sense so as to include all children from the present or previous spouse or whether said expression had been used in a restricted sense to mean that only children born from the present spouse” ?

2. At the outset, we may indicate the reasons for the question being referred to the Division Bench. The petitioner herein came to be disqualified as the Member of the Gram Panchayat under Section 14(1)(j-1) of the Act of 1959 on the ground that she had more than three children after the cut-off date. It is her case that her husband Sheikh Chand had two sons from the earlier marriage and the third child was born from the marriage with the petitioner. The petitioner was held to be disqualified by the Divisional Commissioner and that order was challenged in the present writ petition. The decision in Girika Badamrao Pandit Versus State of Maharashtra & Others [2012(5) Mh.L.J. 658] was relied upon by the counsel for the petitioner to urge that the disqua