Last Updated on January 6, 2024 by The Health Master
New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Monday refused to stay a central government order of April, which suspended provisions of the Pre-Natal Diagnostic Techniques (PNDT) Act, 1994, citing the health emergency created by the Covid-19 pandemic. The Act makes it mandatory for doctors to report prenatal tests, and activists have warned that relaxing norms on reporting prenatal tests could lead to rise in female foeticide.
The country needed doctors to fight the pandemic, “a national crisis”, said a bench led by Justice UU Lalit on Monday, backing the government order. On its part, the health ministry claimed that it had only relaxed some stringent reporting provisions but diagnostic centres had to maintain records on all such tests.
The relaxation was valid only up to June 30 and labs capable of carrying out pre-natal diagnostic tests would get more time to renew licences if the renewal was due in the period, the ministry said. The April order had relaxed rules which mandated submission of records of every month before the competent authority by 5{+t}{+h} of the next month and quarterly reports from states/UTs.
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Challenging the government notification that suspended Rule 8.9 (8) and 18A (6) of the PNDT Act, 1994, the petitioner, Dr Sabu George Mathews, contended that relaxation of rules may lead to free use of sex selection tests. The act provided for certain reporting, scrutiny standards for re-registration of diagnostic centres and any waiver of rules would render the law toothless, his lawyer Sanjay Parikh argued.
After hearing short arguments the bench issued notices on the petition challenging the suspension of the rules but refused to intervene for now. “See the kind of difficult situation the country is in. A lot of doctors are required for all this work. We are in a national emergency and the relaxation is only till June 30,” Justice Lalit said and adjourned the case till the third week of July. The petitioner can return to court if the notification is extended beyond June 30.
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