Stating that doctors shouldn’t make sex determination a “business”, the Bombay high court lambasted the lawyer of a doctor, who allegedly carried out sex determination when a woman had gone in for a regular pregnancy check-up. The court also dismissed the petition and reserved its order in the plea filed by the doctor, who had pleaded that the proceedings against her in a magistrate court be quashed.
On Saturday, Justice Sadhana Jadhav was hearing the petition of Dr Sujata Gundewar and her husband who had allegedly violated the Pre-Conception and Pre-Natal Diagnostic Techniques (PCPNDT) Act, as they had carried out the pre-natal sex determination of the child.
Justice Jadhav remar-ked, “Taking time of court is abuse of law. You’re wasting time of both the magistrate court and this court. Why did you allow the proceedings to begin at all when you could have taken cognisance?” While pulling up the lawyer and observing that doctors are not the only ones who create a mess in such cases, the judge remarked, “Mess is not created only by one profession.”
According to advocate Purushottam Chavan, who was appearing for Pandharpur-based lawyer and original complainant Dhanashree Ghadge, on August 17, 2007, Ms Ghadge visited Sushrut Hospital — run by gynaecologist Dr Sujata Gundewar — her husband Dr Vivek Gundewar and his brother Dr Ajit Gundewar, for her regular check-up. However, the doctor informed her that she had determined the sex of the foetus while carrying out the sonography and that it was a female. The doctor even gave her an option to abort as Ms Ghadge had had a girl child before. Shocked, Ms Ghadge told her that she had never wanted a sonography and had only wanted a regular check-up.
In 2009, Ms Ghadge and her husband Kiran Ghadge filed a complaint with the joint director health services (family welfare), Pune. However, aggrieved by the director’s inaction, they later approached the first class magistrate court in Pandharpur.
Mr Kiran said, “I had to wait for a year as my first daughter was undergoing treatment for a heart ailment with Dr Vivek, a child specialist. In addition, I was gathering information about previous such instances.”