‘Involve ward medical officers in detecting sex determination tests’

It took nearly a year for the Pune Municipal Corporation’s health department to fill the critical vacancy of a special legal counsel for pursuing cases under Pre-Conception and Pre-Natal Diagnostic Techniques (Prohibition of Sex Selection) Act, 1994, known as the PCPNDT Act. Having taken charge recently, legal counsel Dr Milind Salunkhe is now busy pursuing 12 pending cases against city hospitals/clinics for flouting the law. He plans to train PMC employees on correctly filing cases under the law. Dr Salunkhe discussed his role and responsibilities with DNA.

What are the main problems you are facing while representing PMC in the 12 pending cases?
The cases I am handling at present were filed by the staff of the health department a year ago. While going through these cases, I find that most of them have technical flaws, which will make the cases weak in the court of law. This was done by the staff who had conducted the raids.

At this stage, I cannot rectify those flaws as the law does not allow the same. In order to prevent this from happening in the future, I have decided to hold a workshop for the staff of health department to guide them in proper filing of the cases.

How can the PMC improve the implementation of the PCPNDT Act and put a curb on illegal sex determination tests being carried out in the city?
The illegal sex determination tests are being carried out by registered medical practitioners on the sly. Thus, the health department of the PMC should keep a strict tab on all practitioners in the city to put the fear of the law in them. This could be done through regular checks and filing more cases against practitioners who do not maintain their records properly.

Now, the raids are carried out by the appropriate authority — the assistant medical officer of health (AMoH), Dr Vaishali Jadhav. If the power is given to the 14 ward medical officers, I think its implementation would be more effective.

What is the conviction rate in the PCPNDT cases in Maharashtra?
Since 2006, there have been 139 cases filed in Maharashtra under the PCPNDT Act, by the various appropriate authorities. Out of this, the government has won 17 cases, of which 14 were filed by the PMC. In four cases filed by the municipalities of Jalgaon,
Mumbai and Nanded, doctors were fined as well as jailed by the court of law.

The figure 17 may look low, but we must understand that PCPNDT is a very complex law and very few legal professionals are well-versed in it.