The Supreme Court on Tuesday cracked the whip on Haryana asking the State Government to finish all trials for offences relating to illegal sex-determination tests within four months. Noting the high rate of acquittals in cases registered under the Pre-Conception and Pre-natal Diagnostic Techniques Act, the court asked the Haryana Government to organise training workshops for lawyers dealing with these cases and even gave liberty to Chief Secretary to initiate disciplinary proceedings against officers who fail to attend such workshops.
The court passed the order after it was confronted with the statistics showing the notorious past of the State in having a declining girl sex ratio. “Decline in sex-ratio is a disturbing problem and the same is likely to affect civilisation in entirety. Women are the basic pillar of human race in any society…Unless this malady in not eradicated in time it has the potential to lead to a disastrous state of affairs.”
The Haryana Government disputed the claim that the female sex ratio was on a decline. Its counsel submitted that since BJP Government came to power efforts have been made to save girl child under a national scheme of “Beti Bachao, Beti Padhao”. He said that the total girl sex ration had improved from 830 to 872.
But the Bench headed by Justice Dipak Misra said, “Declining sex ratio is a disturbing problem,” going by the affidavit filed by the State. It directed the State to provide a list of cases pending under PNDT Act to the Registrar General of the Punjab and Haryana High Court who may consider appointing a panel of lawyers to expeditiously deal with the cases.
The Bench asked the State Judicial Academy to train these lawyers in the presence of Director of Prosecution. The Bench fixed the matter for further consideration on February 17 when it will deal with the declining child sex ratio in Delhi. Earlier, the court had termed as “unfortunate” the failure of states to stop female foeticide in the country and identified UP, Delhi and Haryana to be lax in implementing the law in letter and spirit.