Haryana records second conviction under PNDT Act

Chandigarh, Nov 17 (UNI) Haryana has recorded second conviction of a doctor for sex determination under Pre-Natal Diagnostic Techniques (PNDT) Act.

The court of Chief Judicial Magistrate, Rohtak has convicted Dr S N Danvantri and sentenced him to one-year imprisonment and imposed a fine of Rs 5000 under Section 22(3) of Pre Conception and Pre-Natal Diagnostic Technique (PC&PNDT) Act 1994.

Stating this here today, Haryana Health Minister Kartar Devi said Haryana was the first state in the country to get a doctor convicted under the PNDT Act in 2005.

Dr Anil Sabhani and Kartar Singh, a technician, from Palwal in Faridabad district were sentenced to two-year imprisonment and a fine of Rs 5000 each under the PNDT Act.

She said two more cases had been registered against Dr Surinder Yadav of Gurgaon and Dr S N Indora, Faridabad under the PNDT Act.

The charges had been framed against the erring doctors, who had been booked under the PNDT Act by the Health Department.

Regarding two other convictions under the Medical Termination of Pregnancy (MTP) Act, Ms Kartar Devi said that under the MTP Act, the Court of Mr N P Dewett, Additional Session Judge, Gurgaon had convicted Dr Rajni to rigorous imprisonment of one year and a fine of Rs 1000 under Indian Medical Council Act, 1956.

The convict, Neera, who was undergoing medical termination of pregnancy, had also been sentenced two years rigorous imprisonment for commission of offence under Section IPC.

She said that in case of second such conviction, a trained Dai Joginder Kaur and her assistant Rekha, who had been running an illegal clinic in Ambala, were awarded two year imprisonment and a fine of Rs 2,000 by a Fast Track Court under the MTP Act.

Director General Health Services, Dr Avinash Sharma said with a view to address the issue of adverse sex-ratio, which stands at 857 females for every 1000 males, the State had been making all possible efforts to eliminate sex-selective abortions.

A number of decoy raid operations had been undertaken at various ultrasound centres across Haryana. The state had also registered 950 Ultrasound Clinics or Genetic Clinics and 66 Genetic Counselling Centres under the PC and PNDT Act.

As many as 46 ultrasound machines had been registered in the government sector. One hundred ultrasound machines had been seized and sealed by respective District Appropriate Authorities. Also, 5760 inspections of various ultrasound clinics had been conducted.

Registration of 165 ultrasound centres had been suspended or cancelled for violation of various provisions of the PNDT Act.

Also, 36 prosecution complaints had been filed in various courts of the state.

UNI