The Bombay high court has directed the state to upload on the government website details of those who are seeking eye donations and are on the waiting list as a means to ensure transparency in the transplant process.
A division bench of justices Abhay Oka and Ajey Gadkari directed the director of health services, Dr Satish Pawar, to put up the entire database on the public health website and ensure it's regularly updated.
The court gave the direction while hearing a public interest litigation seeking a change in section 6 of the Transplantation of Human Organs Act to facilitate the retrieval of corneas in medico-legal cases without any additional legal hassles.
Advocate Mihir Desai, counsel for the petitioner, argued that the objective of the Act is to ensure transparency in the procedure and, hence, even if the authority compiles the data district-wise but doesn't upload it on the public domain, the purpose won't be served. The bench agreed with the argument.
The court also asked Pawar to inform during the next hearing whether the state's direction to municipal corporations in Maharashtra, of including a column for eye donation in the death certificate, is being implemented.
The government had on June 26, 2013, issued direction to the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation and other city corporations and councils to include a column in the death certificate and application forms, which will make people consider giving consent to donating their eyes to banks.
The bench also came down heavily on the government as the advisory committee which was formed after a government resolution passed in 2012 has not met thereafter and no recommendation has been given. It said, "The government should consider forming a new advisory committee with people who are willing to work."
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