New Delhi: Observing that there is a national crisis due to COVID-19 and doctors' services were needed to be conserved for the pandemic, the Supreme Court on Monday refused to stay the Centre's April 4 notification by which the implementation of certain rules of the Pre-Conception and Pre-Natal Diagnostic Techniques (Prohibition of Sex-Selection Rules), 1996 (PCPNDT), were suspended till June 30, 2020.
Hearing the matter, a bench of Justices U U Lalit, M M Shantanagoudar and Vineet Saran, however, gave liberty to the petitioner to raise the issue again in case the notification is renewed beyond said date.
The bench said that it won't be possible for it to interfere with the notification at this stage and posted the matter for further hearing in the month of July.
The plea filed by one Sabu Mathew George has challenged the “illegal and arbitrary” notification issued by the Department of Health and Family Welfare, dated April 4, by which the implementation of the Rule 8, 9(8) and 18 A (6) of the PCPNDT was suspended till June 30.
It said that despite the requirement for maintenance of records being a standard feature of laws regulating medical practices, in the present instance, the PCPNDT Rules have been arbitrarily selected and ‘suspended, under the guise of the lockdown.
“This action, rolls back the gains made by the proper implementation of the Act by this Court, and is arbitrary and unreasonable, aside from being a nullity, and wholly without jurisdiction. Such a power to suspend is not provided in the scheme of the Act,” the plea said.
SC refuses to stay Centre's notification suspending PCPNDT rules
The Supreme Court has refused to stay the the central government's April 4 notification which suspended PCPNDT till June 30, 2020 in view of cornavirus crisis in India.
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It said that this notification is entirely without jurisdiction and a nullity, as the PCPNDT Act, does not give any powers for the suspension of the Rules made thereunder.
"The action of the Central Government in suspending certain Rules under the PCPNDT Act, 1994, despite not having the power to do so, violates Article 14 and 21 of the Constitution, as (in addition to being without jurisdiction) the Central Government has arbitrarily and selectively weakened a legislation aimed at curbing the pernicious activity of sex-selection and sex-determination," it said.
The plea said that the number of girls missing at birth due to the practice of gender biased sex selection in India has been estimated at 0.46 million girls per year for the period 2001-12 (which is a total of 5.52 million girl children, missing at birth for the 12-year period), and the PCPNDT Act and the subsequent rules are aimed at remedying this social evil.
"By suspending the Rules, the Central Government has diluted the PCPNDT Act, and this will result in misuse of technology by unscrupulous individuals, who will no longer be deterred by the monitoring mechanism provided in the Rules,” the plea of George said.
The petition, which sought quashing of April 4 notification issued by the department of health and family welfare, said that this illegal suspension of Rules, while medical establishments continue to function, will provide avenues for misuse of technology for purposes of sex-selection and sex-determination, and will result in a loss of the gains made in the strict implementation of the Act, despite the fact that such strict implementation is a consequence of this Court''s orders.