Holding

The Court held that the Central and State Governments must ensure vigorous implementation of the Pre-natal Diagnostic Techniques Act, 1994, by following the detailed directions issued herein.

Summary

The Supreme Court entertained a writ petition under Article 32 challenging the poor implementation of the Pre-natal Diagnostic Techniques (Regulation and Prevention of Misuse) Act, 1994, which aims to curb female foeticide. The petitioners, including CEHAT, alleged that neither the Central nor State Governments had effectively enforced the Act. After hearing submissions, the Court issued comprehensive directions to the Central Government, the Central Supervisory Board, State Governments/UTs, and the Appropriate Authorities to create public awareness, enforce the Act and its rules, hold regular supervisory meetings, and submit quarterly reports. Specific directives were given to curb advertisements violating Section 22, to ensure registration of diagnostic centres under Section 3, and to lay down a code of conduct under Section 16(iv). The Court also mandated that the supervisory mechanisms report back by 30 July 2001, leaving the petition pending for further monitoring.

Issues considered

The extent of the Central and State Governments' duty to implement the PNDT Act, 1994.
Whether specific directions are necessary to ensure effective enforcement of the Act's provisions, including public awareness and monitoring mechanisms.

Subjects

female foeticideprenatal sex determinationPNDT Actimplementationpublic awarenessCentral Supervisory BoardAppropriate AuthoritySection 22 advertisementSection 3 registrationcode of conduct

Judgment

,,
A CENTRE FOR ENQUIRY INTO HEALTH AND ALLIED THEMES
(CEHAT) AND ORS.
T"
v.
UNION OF INDIA AND ORS. ..
.

MAY 4, 2001
B /

[M.B .. SHAH AND S.N. VARIAVA, JJ.]

Pre-natal Diagnostic Techniques (Regulation and Prevention ofMisuse)
Act, 1994 : Sections 3, 7, 9, 16, 17 and 22.
c
Female foeticide-Practice· of-Deprecation of~Effect of practice-
Object ofAct is to prevent Jnisuse of techniques for the purpose of pre-natal
sex determination leading to female foeticide-Act came into force from 1st
January 1996-But to a large extent it is not implemented by the Central
Government or State Government-Hence writ petition in this Court-
D .
Directions issued by Supreme Court.
~

Directions to Central Government-Central Government should create
awareness against the pre-determination of sex and female foeticide-Act
>--
and Rules should be implemented with zeal-Rule 15 shall be strictly adhered
to.
E
Directions to Central Supervisory Board-Meeting of Board shall be
held at/east once in six months-Members of the Board shall be appointed
for implementation of the Act-Supervisory Board shall review and monitor
the implementation of the Act-Board shall also examine the necessity to --<
F amend the Act keeping in mind the emerging technologies and difficulties
encountered in implementing the Act-Supervisory Board shall lay down a
Code of Conduct under Section 16(iv).

Directions to State Government!U. 7: Administrations-Fully empowered
Appropriate Authorities at district and sub-district levels and also Advisory
G Committees to aid and advise the Appropriate Authority in discharge of its
function shall be appointed-List of the Appropriate Authorities in the print y
and electronic media in its respective State/UT shali be published-Public
awareness against the pradice of pre-natal determination of sex and female »---·
foeticide shall be created-Must be ensured that all State/UT Appropriate
Authorities furnish quarterly returns to the Supervisory Board giving a
H
534
CENTRE FOR ENQUIRY INTO HEALTH AND ALLIED THEMES v. U.O.I. 535

report on the implementation and working of the Act. A
Directions to Appropriate Authorities-Prompt action should be taken
against any person or body who issues or causes to be issued any advertisement
in violation of section 22 of the Act-Action should be taken against persons
who are operating without a valid certificate of registration under the Act-
All State/UT Appropriate Authorities should furnish quarterly returns to the B·
Supervisory Board giving a report on the implementation and working of the
Act.

CIVIL ORIGINAL JURISDICTION: Writ Petition (C) No. 301 of
2000.
c'
(Under Article 32 of the Constitution of India)

Soli J. Sorabjee, Attorney General, Ms. Indira Jai. Singh, Yogeshwar
Prasad, Dinesh Dwivedi, Kailash Vasdev, Sanjay Parikh, R.R. Chandrachud,
Sanjay Ghosh, Ms. Jayna Kothari, Manish Singhvi, Ms. Hemantika Wahi, Ms. D
Sumita Hazarika, Krishan Mahana, C. Radha Krishana, Ajay Sharma, Jayshree
Anand, Addi. Advocate General for State of Punjab, Mis. Jain Hansaria &
Co., (NP), Radha Shyam Jena, Brijender Chahar for Ashok Mathur, Sushil
Kumar Jain (NP), K.M.K. Nair, S.R. Shanna for Mahabir Singh, Bhavanishankar
V. Gadnis, for Shiv Sagar Tiwari, Ms. A. Subhashini, Rajiv Sharma, Anil
Shrivastav, Sanjay R. Hegde, Sanjay Mitra, Sanjay K. Shandilya for V. D. E'
Khanna, Satish K. Agnihotri, Sakesh Kumar, Anil K. Pandey, Rohit Kumar
Singh, Gopal Singh, Ajay K. Agrawal, Alka Agrawal, Kamlendra Misra, Ms.
Sangeeta Sharma for RC. Verma, Ajay K. Agrawal, Vibhakar Mishra, Dev Brat
Tiwari, A. Mariarputham, Ms. Arona Mathur, Rajeev Sharma for Tara Chandra
Sharma, Ms. Sunita R. Singh, Kh. Nobin Singh, Rajan Mukherjee, Naresh K.
Shanna, V.G. Pragasam, S.V. Deshpande and Ms. Sunita Shanna for D.S. Mehra F
for the appearing parties.

... The following Order of the Court was delivered :

It is unfortunate that for one reason or the other, the practice of female G
infanticide still prevails despite the fact that gentle touch of a daughter and
her voice has soothing effect on the parents. One of the reasons may be the

- __,,{_'
marriage problems faced by the parents coupled with the dowry demand by
the so-called educated and/or rich persons who are well placed in the society.
The traditional system of female infanticide whereby female baby was done
away with after birth by poisoning or letting her choke on husk continues in H
536 SUPREME COURT REPORTS [2001] 3 S.C.R.
;
A a different form by taking advantage of advance medical techniques.
Unfortunately, developed medical science is misused to get rid of a girl child
before birth. Knowing full well that it is immoral and unethical as well as it .....,.,-
may amount to an offence, foetus of a girl child is aborted by qualified and
't.
unqualified doctors or compounders. This has affected overall ·sex ratio in
various States where female infanticide is prevailing without any hindrance.
B
For controlling the situation, the Parliament in its wisdom enacted the
Pre-natal Diagnostic Techniques (Regulation and Prevention of Misuse) Act,
1994 (hereinafter referred to as "the PNDT Act"). The Preamble, inter alia,
provides that the object of the Act is to prevent the misuse of such techniques
c for the purpose of pre-natal sex determination leading to female foeticide and
for matter connected therewith or incidental thereto. The Act came into force

-
from 1st January, 1996.
/

It is apparent that to a large extent, the PNDT Act is not implemented
by the Central Government or by the State Governments. Hence, the petitioners
D are required to approach this Court under Article 32 of the Constitution of
India. One of the petitioners is the Central for Enquiry into Health and Allied
Themes (CEHAT) which is a research centre of Anusandhan Trust based·in
Pune and Mumbai. Second petitioner is Mahila Sarvangeen Utkarsh Mandal ~

(MASUM) based in Pune and Maharashtra and third petitioner'is Dr. Sabu
M. Georges who is having experience and technical knowledge in the field.
E After filing of this petition, this Court issued notices to the concerned parties
on 9.5.2000. It took nearly one year for the various States to file their affidavits
in reply/written submissions. Prima facie it appears that despite the PNDT
Act being enacted by the Parliament five years back, neither tht . State
"
Governments nor the Central Government has taken appropriate actions for
ist implement~tion. Hence, after considering the respective submissions made
---<
F ·-
at the time of hearing of this matter, as suggested by the learned Attorney
General for India, Mr. Soli J. Sorabjee following directions are issued on the
basis of various provisions for the proper implementation of the PNDT Act:-
~
I. Direction to the Central Government
G
1. The Central Government is directed to create public awareness
against the practice of pre-natal determination of sex and female
foeticide through appropriate releases/programmes in the
electronic media. This shall also be done by Central Supervisory ...,,.._ ...
Board ("CSB" for short) as provided under Section 16(iii) of the
H PNDT Act.
CENTRE FOR ENQUIRY INTO HEALTH AND ALLIED THEMES v. U.O.l. 537

2. The Central Government is directed to implement with all vigour A
and zeal the PNDT Act and the Rules framed in 1996. Rule 15
1
provides that the intervening period between two meetings of
the Advisory Committees constituted under sub-section (5) of
Section 17 of the PNDT Act to Advise the appropriate authority
shall not exceed 60 days. It would be seen that this Rule is
strictly adhered to. B
II. Directions to the Central Supervisory Board (CSB)

>.: 1. Meeting of the CSB will be held at least once in six months. [Re.
Proviso to Section 9(1)] The constitution of the CSB is provided
under Section 7.. It empowers the Central Government to appoint
ten members under Section 7(2)(e) which includes eminent medical
c
practitioners including eminent social scientists and
representatives .of women welfare organizations. We hope that
this power will be exercised so as to include those persons who
can genuinely spare some time for implementation of the Act.
D
2. The CSB shall review and monitor the implementation of the Act.

~
[Re. Section 16(ii)].
3. The CSB shall issue directions to all State/UT Appropriate
Authorities to furnish quarterly returns to the CSB giving a
report on the implementation and working of the Act. These E
returns should inter a/ia contain specific information about:-
-:.
(i) Survey of bodies specified in section 3 of the Act.
(ii) Registration of bodies specified in section 3 of th.e Act.

(fu) Action taken against non-registered bodies operating in F
vioiation of section 3 of the Act, inclusive of search and
seizure of records.
" (iv) Complaints received by the Appropriate Authorities under
the Act and action taken pursuant thereto.
G
(v) Number and nature of awareness campaigns conducted and
results flowing therefrom.
..-,......(. 4. The CSB shall examine the necessity to amend the Act keeping
in mind emerging technologies and difficulties encountered in
implementation of the Act and to make recommendations to the H
538 SUPREME COURT REPORTS [2001] 3 S.C.R.

A Central Government. [Re. Section 16].
5. The CSB shall lay down a code of conduct under section 16(iv)
of the Act to be observed by persons working in bodies specified '
therein and to ensure its publication so that public at large can
know about it.
...
B 6. The CSB will require medical professional bodies/associations to
create awareness against the practice of pre-natal determination
of sex and female foeticide and to ensure implementation of the
Act.
::J.._

c Ill. Directions to State Governments/UT Administrations
1. All State Governments/UT Administrations are directed to appoint
by notification, fully empowered Appropriate Authorities at
::
district and sub-district levels and also Advisory Committees to
aid and advise the Appropriate Authority in discharge of its
D· functions [Re. Section 17(5).] For the Advisory Committee also,
it is hoped that members of the said Committ,ee as provided
under section 17(6)(d) should be such persons who can devote
some time for the work assigned to them. ;.t

2. All State Governments/UT Administrations are directed to publish
E .a list of the Appropriate Authorities in the print and electronic
~
media in its respective State/UT.
;,.
3. All State Governments/UT Administrations are directed to create
public awareness against the practice of pre-natal deteqnination
of sex and female foeticide through advertisement in the print ,.-<
F and electronic media by hoardings and other appropriate means.
4. All State Governments/UT Administrations are directed to ensure
that all State/UT Appropriate Authorities furnish quarterly returns
to the CSB giving a report on the implementation and working
of the Act. These returns should inter alia contain specific
G information about :-

(i) Survey of bodies specified in section 3 of he Act.

(ii) Registration of bodies specified in section 3 of the Act.

(rii) Action taken against non-registered bodies operating in
,......., ..
H violation of section of section 3 of the Act, inclusive of
CENTRE FOR ENQUIRY INTO HEALTH AND ALLIED THEMES v. U.O.I. 539

search and seizure of records. A
(iv) Complaints received by the Appropriate Authorities under
the Act and action taken pursuant thereto.

(v) Number and, nature of awareness campaigns conducted and
results flowing therefrom. B
JV. Directions to Appropriate Authorities

1. Appropriate Authorities are directed to take prompt action against
any person or body who issues or causes to be issued any
advertisement in violation of section 22 of the Act.
c
2. Appropriate Authorities are directed to take prompt action against
all bodies specified in section 3 of the Act as also against
persons who are operating without a valid certificate of
registration under the Act.
3. All State/UT Appropriate Authorities are directed to furnish D
quarterly returns to the CSB giving a report on the implementation
and working of the Act. These returns should inter alia contain
specific informatiOn
,
about :-
(i) Suryey of bodies specified in section 3 of the Act.
E
(ii) Registration. of bodies specified in section 3 of the Act
including bodies using ultrasound machines.

(ill.) Action tak~n against non-registered· bodies operating in
violation of section 3 of the Act, inclusive of search and
seizure of records.
F
(iv) Complaints received by the Appropriate Authorities under
the Act and action taken pursuant thereto.

(v) Number and nature of awareness campaigns conducted and
results flowing therefrom.
G
The CSB and the State Government/Union Territories are directed to
report to this Court on or before 30th July 2001. List the matter on 6.8.2001
for further directions at the bottom of the list.

T.N.A. Petition is pending.

·~