Police often falsely arrest doctors in prenatal test cases: Gujarat HC
Justice Sandeep N Bhatt said that many times the court is unable to understand allegations made by police authorities
Updated: Aug 1st, 2023
The Gujarat high court has held an important judgment regarding the Pre-conception and Pre-natal Diagnostic Techniques (Prevention of Sex) Act, 1994. Justice Sandeep N Bhatt noted that police authorities often falsely arrest doctors under the PCPNDT Act. Most of the time, genuine doctors suffer due to this discrepancy between the police.
In a 2014 case filed against a gynaecologist in Rajkot, a summons was issued by the trial court. Later, a revision petition was filed against him in the sessions court, which was also dismissed. However, in the end, the doctor was declared innocent by the court.
Doctors not responsible for their staff’s mistake
On the other hand, the government stated that the discharged doctor had failed to maintain the required records and that the consent form was not filled out by the pregnant woman at their diagnostic centre. The doctor reportedly violated the rules of the PCPNDT Act as a mandatory ‘form F’ had not been filed before the sonography.
In the whole case, mistakes were made by clerical staff and hospital staff, not the doctors and visiting doctors. Hence, doctors cannot be held responsible for such violations.
The court observed that while authorities, at times, can be right in taking action against the doctors, but the action is not always logical, and that has resulted in the suffering of some genuine doctors.
The Court dismissed the petition in limine (a motion before trial begins).
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