Efforts to penalise sex-determination of foetuses under the Prenatal Diagnostics Techniques Act (PNDT Act) are being stepped up by the Supreme Court. India cannot afford further decreasing sex ratio, which continues to be a “social affliction and disease”.
"Decrease in sex ratio is a sign of colossal calamity and it cannot be allowed to happen. Concrete steps have to be taken to increase the same so that a social disaster does not befall society," said a Bench of Justices Dipak Misra and SK Singh, while giving a slew of directions in its 43-page judgment on Tuesday, reports Times of India.
The bench requested chief justices of high courts “to constitute a committee of three judges which can periodically oversee progress of cases” under the PNDT Act.
Delhi’s sex ratio is 895 female to every 1,000 male child births, Odisha’s is 886 to 1,000 and Haryana at 880.
The Supreme Court has made it compulsory for states and Union territories to "maintain a centralised database of civil registration records from all registration units so that information can be made available from the website regarding the number of male and female children births."
"The effectiveness of the legislation must be felt and realised in society," the bench said.
(With inputs from Times of India)
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