IMPORTANT POINTS
Provisions of the Act and the Rules made thereunder need to be implemented properly and promptly.
In case of abuse of process of law, an individual can always avail legal remedy.

JUDGMENT :

Dipak Misra, J.

The two writ petitions being inter-connected in certain aspects were heard together and are disposed of by the singular order. We shall first deal with the grievance agitated in Writ Petition (Civil) No. 349 of 2006 and thereafter advert to what has been asserted in the other writ petition. Be it stated immediately that the issues raised in Writ Petition (Civil) No. 349 of 2006 are not agitated for the first time, for they had been raised on earlier occasions and dealt with serious concern and solemn sincerity. It is because they relate to the very core of existence of a civilized society, pertain to the progress of the human race, and expose the maladroit efforts to throttle the right of a life to feel the mother earth and smell its fragrance. And, if we allow ourselves to say, the issues have been highlighted with sincere rhetorics and balanced hyperboles and ring the alarm of destruction of humanity in the long run. It is not a group prophecy, but a significant collective predication. The involvement of all is obvious, and it has to be. The heart of the issue that is zealously projected by the petitioner is the increase of female foeticide, resultant imbalance of sex ratio and the indifference in the implementation of the stringent law that is in force. In essence, the fulcrum of the anguished grievance lays stress on the non-implementation of the provisions of The Pre-conception and Pre-natal Diagnostic Techniques (Prohibition of Sex Selection) Act, 1994 (for brevity “the Act”) and The Pre-conception and Pre-natal Diagnostic Techniques (Prohibition of Sex Selection) Rules, 1996 (for short “the Rules”) framed under the Act by the competent authorities who are obliged to do so.

2. The grievance has a narrative, and it needs to be stated.

3. Realising the rise of pre-natal diagnostic centres in urban areas of the country using pre-natal diagnostic techniques for determination of sex of the foetus and that the said centres had become very popular and had tremendous growth, as the female child is not welcomed with open arms in many Indian families and the consequence that such centres became centres for female foeticide which affected the dignity and status of women, the Parliament brought in the legislation to regulate the use of such techniques and to provide punishment for such inhuman act. The objects and reasons of the Act stated unequivocally that it was meant to prohibit the misuse of pre-natal diagnostic techniques for determination of sex of the foetus, leading to female foeticide; to prohibit advertisement of pre-natal diagnostic techniques for detection or determination of sex; to permit and regulate the use of pre-natal diagnostic techniques for the purpose of detection of specific genetic abnormalities or disorders; to permit the use of such techniques only under certain conditions by the registered institutions; and to punish for violation of the provisions of the proposed legislation. The Preamble of the Act provides for the prohibition of sex selection before or after conception, and for regulation of pre-natal diagnostic techniques for the purposes of detecting genetic abnormalities or metabolic disorders or chromosomal abnormalities or certain congenital malformations or sex-linked disorders and for the prevention of their misuse for sex determination leading to female foeticide and for matters connected therewith or incidental thereto. Be it noted when the Act came into force, it was named as the Pre-natal Diagnostic Techniques (Regulation and Prevention of Misuse) Act, 1994 and after the amendments in 2001 and 2003, in the present incarnation, it is called The Pre-conception and Pre-natal Diagnostic Techniques (Prohibition of Sex Selection) Act, 1994.

4. As the violence and cruelty meted out to women gradually got revealed due to rights and protections prescribed under various legis