Context: Recently, the Supreme Court asked the government to explain its decision to suspend crucial rules of a parliamentary law against pre-natal sex determination and sex selection till June end, amid the COVID-19 national lockdown.
Key Points

• As per a petition in SC, the Central government has arbitrarily and selectively weakened a legislation aimed at curbing the pernicious activity of sex-selection and sex-determination.
• By suspending the Rules, the government has diluted the PCPNDT Act, the petition said.
• SC issued formal notice to the government on April 4 notification issued by the Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare which put on hold the implementation of certain rules of the Pre-Conception and Pre-Natal Diagnostic Techniques (Prohibition of Sex-Selection Rules) of 1994 till June 30, 2020.
• One of the suspended provisions, Rule 8, is intrinsically connected with the statute’s provisions dealing with the mandatory registration of genetic counselling centres, laboratories and clinics.
• This will result in misuse of technology by unscrupulous individuals who will no longer be deterred by the monitoring mechanism provided in the Rules.
• This illegal suspension of Rules, while medical establishments continue to function, will provide avenues for misuse of technology for purposes of sex-selection and sex-determination, and will result in a loss of the gains made in the strict implementation of the Act.

Pre-Conception and Pre-Natal Diagnostic Techniques

• Pre-Conception and Pre-Natal Diagnostic Techniques (PCPNDT) Act, 1994 is an Act of the Parliament of India enacted to stop female foeticides and arrest the declining sex ratio in India.
• The act banned prenatal sex determination.

Objectives

• To ban the use of sex selection techniques before or after conception.
• To prevent the misuse of prenatal diagnostic technique for sex selective abortion.

Salient features
Offences under this act include

• Conducting or helping in the conduct of prenatal diagnostic technique in the unregistered units,
• Sex selection on a man or woman,
• Conducting PNDT test for any purpose other than the one mentioned in the act,
• Sale, distribution, supply, renting etc. of any ultra sound machine or any other equipment capable of detecting sex of the foetus.

Main provisions in the act

• The Act provides for the prohibition of sex selection, before or after conception.
• It regulates the use of pre-natal diagnostic techniques, like ultrasound machine by allowing them their use only to detect- genetic abnormalities, metabolic disorders, chromosomal abnormalities, certain congenital malformations, haemoglobinopathies, Sex linked disorders.
• No laboratory or center or clinic will conduct any test including ultrasonography for the purpose of determining the sex of the foetus.
• No person, including the one who is conducting the procedure as per the law, will communicate the sex of the foetus to the pregnant woman or her relatives by words, signs or any other method.
• Any person who puts an advertisement for pre-natal and pre-conception sex determination facilities in the form of a notice, circular, label, or any document, or advertises through interior or other media in electronic or print form or engages in any visible representation made by means of hoarding, wall painting, signal, light, sound, can be imprisoned for up to three years and fined Rs. 10,000.

Key Facts: The number of girls missing at birth due to the practice of gender biased sex selection in India has been estimated at 0.46 million girls per year for the period 2001-12 (which is 5.52 million girl children, missing at birth for the 12-year period).