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- In a significant judgment, the Supreme Court has upheld the Sections 23(1) and 23(2) of the Preconception and Prenatal Diagnostic Techniques (Prohibition of Sex Selection) (PCN-PNDT) Act, 1994. It criminalises non-maintenance of medical records by obstetricians and gynaecologists and suspend their medical licence indefinitely.
- The judgement came in the backdrop of a petition filed by Federation of Obstetrics and Gynaecological Societies of India (FOGSI) which said that Section 23 equated anomalies in paperwork/record keeping/clerical errors on the same footing with the actual offence of sex determination.
- The Supreme Court has observed that any dilution of any provisions of the Act would defeat the purpose of the Act and relegate the right to life of the girl child under Article 21 of the Constitution, to a mere formality.
- The PC-PNDT Act was enacted in 1994 with the intent to prohibit prenatal diagnostic techniques for determination of the sex of the foetus leading to female feticide.
- Female foeticide is the process of finding out the sex of the foetus and undergoing abortion if it is a female.
- Sex-selected abortions is a grave concern in India. In a publication of United Nations population Fund (UNFPA), it was published that 0.46 million girls were missing at birth on an average annually during the period 20012012 as a result of sexselective abortions.
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