CENTRE FOR ENQUIRY INTO HEALTH AND ALLIED THEMES (CEHAT) AND ORS. versus UNION OF INDIA AND ORS.

Citation: [2001] 3 S.C.R. 534 · Decided: 04-05-2001 · Supreme Court of India · Bench: M.B. SHAH, S.N. VARIAVA · Disposal: Hearing Adjourned

Cited by 2 judgment(s) · see the full citation network in Lexace

Judgment (excerpt)

, , 
A 
CENTRE FOR ENQUIRY INTO HEALTH AND ALLIED THEMES 
(CEHAT) AND ORS. 
T" 
v. 
UNION OF INDIA AND ORS. 
. .. 
B 
MAY 4, 2001 
/ 
[M.B .. SHAH AND S.N. VARIAVA, JJ.] 
Pre-natal Diagnostic Techniques (Regulation and Prevention of Misuse) 
Act, 1994 : Sections 3, 7, 9, 16, 17 and 22. 
c 
Female foeticide-Practice· of-Deprecation of~Effect of practice-
Object of Act 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 
D 
Government or State Government-Hence writ petition in this Court-
. 
~ 
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 
E to. 
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 
H Authorities furnish quarterly returns to the Supervisory Board giving a 
534 
... 
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CENTRE FOR ENQUIRY INTO HEALTH AND ALLIED THEMES v. U.O.I. 535 
report on the implementation and working of the Act. 
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-
A 
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. 
(Under Article 32 of the Constitution of India) 
c' 
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 COU

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