Female foeticide: SC gives Haryana 4 months to complete case trials
Expressing concern over the diminishing child sex ratio in Haryana, the Supreme Court on Tuesday directed that all pending trials of cases lodged for offences of sex determination and female foeticide be completed within four months.
Expressing concern over the diminishing child sex ratio in Haryana, the Supreme Court on Tuesday directed that all pending trials of cases lodged for offences of sex determination and female foeticide be completed within four months.
“The decline in sex ratio is a disturbing problem and the same is likely to affect the civilisation in entirety,” a bench of justice Dipak Misra and justice Abhay Manohar Sapre remarked after perusing the latest report filed by the Haryana government. All 21 districts in the state reflected a decrease in sex ratio year to year, the report said.
The state government told the court that it has galvanised the state authorities on the ‘Beti Bachao, Beti Padhao’ scheme, which is scheduled to be launched by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on January 22.
The scheme will evolve a sustained social mobilisation and communication campaign to change societal norms, to create equal value for the girl child, positioning improvement in the child sex ratio as a lead development indicator for good governance, and focusing on very low child sex ratio or gender-critical districts and cities for accelerated impact.
The bench, which was hearing a bunch of pleas on female foeticide, said the trial in nearly 102 cases, registered under the Pre-Natal Diagnostic Techniques (Prohibition of Sex Selection) Act for the offences of sex determination and female foeticide, be completed within four months, starting February 1.
It also said that Haryana may mull appointing a panel of lawyers which can guide the authorities to take proper action in female foeticide cases so that any action taken under the PNDT Act doesn’t collapse due to technical flaws.
