Courts struggle to dispose of PCPNDT cases

The judiciary is facing the challenge of clearing 92 pending cases of sex determination in over 65 courts across the state by December 2011.

In June, 2011, the Bombay high court (HC) had directed the lower courts in the state to clear the cases registered under the Pre-Conception & Pre-Natal Diagnostic Technique (PCPNDT) Act, 1994, by December 2011.

In June 2011, while hearing a petition filed by Dr Suhasini Karanjkar against the Kolhapur Municipal Corporation (KMC) for seizing her sonography machine, the HC had said that all the cases registered under the PCPNDT Act in 2010 or prior to that be tried and cleared by the magistrate courts by December 31, 2011.

While the deadline is approaching, there is not much progress on this front.

In a recent case cleared by a Satara court on November 14, Dr Ambadas Kadam was awarded the highest punishment ever for conducting sex determination test.

The doctor, who is from Pusegaon, 36 km from Satara, was sentenced to three years of rigorous imprisonment and a fine of Rs1.5 lakh.

The hearing for the case took almost six years. Kadam was caught carrying out the sex-determination test during a sting operation on January 20, 2005. It is one of four cases in the state where the accused were convicted.

Assistant director for health (family welfare), Asaram Khade, said, “Till December 2010, 139 cases had been filed in the state under the Act. Out of these, 47 cases have been cleared.”

The remaining 92 are pending in the courts.

The cases have been registered for offences like conducting sex-selective abortion, sex-determination tests, disclosing the sex of the foetus, keeping incomplete records and not displaying boards against sex-determination tests at clinics.

The HC had remarked that it was distressed by the fact that some cases were pending before various magistrates in the state for as long as eight years.

Stating the reasons for the delay, Satara-based social activist Varsha Deshpande, who has conducted several sting operations, said that in most of the cases the doctors get bail and even the seized sonography machines are returned to them.

So, the accused get back to business even while the cases are going on.

“Public prosecutors have to be trained to put up a strong case against violation of the Act. The implementation has to be strict. Though Maharashtra was the first to implement a law against sex-determination, we are the ones lagging in disposing of the cases,” she said.

From among the 47 cases, which were cleared, the accused were convicted in only four cases.  A fine was imposed in 14 cases, while the government lost more than 30 cases - all this since the introduction of the Act in 1994 till December 2010.