By IANS
New Delhi : The Supreme Court Tuesday decided to examine on Feb 15 a plea seeking to block a US-based website, offering a medical kit to determine the gender of the foetus by testing the blood of the pregnant mother.
The Voluntary Health Association of Punjab, an NGO, apprised a bench of Chief Justice K.G. Balakrishnan, Justice R.V. Raveendran and Justice J.M. Panchal of the existence of the website hosted by a Massachusetts-based firm. Pre-natal gender determination is banned in India.
The association has sought directions to the central government for strict implementation of the provisions of an Indian law banning the pre-natal sex determination test.
The determination of foetus’ gender is banned in India under the Pre-Conception and Pre-Natal Diagnostic Techniques (Prohibition of Sex Selection) Act, 1994, a law amended and made sterner in 2003 following the apex court’s directions.
Counsel Jyothi Mendiratta, appearing for the petitioner, also sought the court’s direction through the government to all courier companies of the country against delivering the offending medical kit in India.
Mendiratta said that as per the information supplied on the website, the product is called ‘baby gender mentor kit’ and determines the foetus’ gender after a test of the pregnant mother’s blood.
“The blood of the pregnant mother contains the genetic derivative of the foetus, which can be identified during the blood tests and leads to the identification of the foetus’ sex as well,” the petitioner pointed out to the court.
Explaining the problem in directly blocking the particular offending website, the counsel told the court: “The source of this particular website is worldwide web and is directly accessible to the entire country.
“Therefore, a blanket blocking of the website is essential to prevent the misuse of the technology and violation of the law,” said Mendiratta.