Hisar docs booked under PNDT Act acquitted after 19 yrs

Nineteen years after the criminal case was instituted, the Punjab and Haryana high court has acquitted two directors of a Hisar-based diagnostic centre booked under the provisions of Pre Conception and Prenatal Diagnostic Techniques (Prohibition of Sex Selection) Act, 1994, over procedural lapses by the local health authorities.

- Surender Sharma

CHANDIGARH: Nineteen years after the criminal case was instituted, the Punjab and Haryana high court has acquitted two directors of a Hisar-based diagnostic centre booked under the provisions of Pre Conception and Prenatal Diagnostic Techniques (Prohibition of Sex Selection) Act, 1994, over procedural lapses by the local health authorities.

"In the instant case, the complaint was filed by Dr SK Naval alone, and it ought to have been filed by a three-member committee, appointed. The same not having been done, the very complaint itself is not maintainable and therefore, the subsequent proceedings and conviction stands vitiated," the bench of justice JS Bedi said while acquitting the duo.