Act notification delay may get convicted Hry docs off the hook

CHANDIGARH: A "technical error" on part of the Haryana government in not notifying the Pre-Natal Diagnostic Techniques (PCPNDT) Act in its official gazette may get many doctors convicted of gender tests in the state, off the hook. The oversight has put the prosecution and conviction of around 50 cases against medical practitioners, charged under PCPNDT Act, in limbo.
These medical practioners were arrested or convicted for conducting sex determination tests under the PCPNDT Act during 1997-2009.Their cases are pending before various courts as they have questioned the basis of their prosecution.
According to them, the PCPNDT Act was not notified in the official gazette by the state government at the time of complaints against them, so their arrest or prosecution under the Act was illegal and beyond jurisdiction.
Even the case of Faridabad-based radiologist, Dr Anil Sabsani, the first doctor in India to be sentenced to jail term in March 2006 for revealing the sex of a female foetus--- is still pending before the high court on the same grounds.
Sabsani, who was sentenced to a jail term under the act, has also challenged his conviction as illegal in the absence of notification of the act in the state when he was booked.
As many as 11-doctors---four in Faridabad, one each in Rewari, Kurukshetra, Sirsa, Mahendergarh and Tohana, one female doctor in Panchkula and one in Sonepat---were acquitted by trial courts in Haryana on the grounds that the act was not notified at the time of complaint against them.
Dr R S Malik of Hisar, who was sentenced to one-year jail by a Hisar court in 2008 under PNDT act, told TOI on Friday that the root of his prosecution was without jurisdiction in the absence of a notification of the Act till 2009, and no court could take cognizance of such offences.
Dr Malik has filed an appeal against the conviction, seeking directions to quash the complaint against him on the grounds that the civil surgeon of the district was not legally authorized to act against him at that time. His appeal along with similar appeal of several other doctors is still pending before the HC.
Dr Baljit Singh Dahiya, social activist and former director-general of health services, Haryana, said, "These doctors may be at an advantage due to legal lacuna, but the state government should contest this strongly in court so that they do not benefit from the "bureaucratic mistakes".
Printing error'
>>>Haryana failure to validate the PCPNDT Act in the state through a notification in its official gazette till July 2009 led to many doctors escaping action
>>>Government realized its mistake and issued an ordinance validating the PCPNDT act on July 20, 2009.
>>>The government attributed the 12-year delay to some error committed by the "printing press".
>>>Several cases of doctors arrested pre-2009 notification are pending before the HC. They claim that the act was validated in the state after July 2009, thus their prosecution is illegal.