Giving a clean chit to Bollywood actor Shahrukh Khan and his wife Gauri in the surrogacy case, the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) on Thursday informed the Bombay High Court that there was no substance in the allegation made against the celebrity couple that they had conducted pre-birth sex determination tests of their surrogate son AbRam.
In an oral submission made before Justice Sadhana Jadhav of the high court, BMC’s senior counsel MPS Rao said that the civic body had conducted an inquiry into the allegations made by activist-lawyer Varsha Deshpande in her complaint against the actor and his wife), and found that there was nothing incriminating on record against the couple.
Justice Sadhana Jadhav was hearing a petition filed by social activist Varsha Deshpande for early hearing of the complaint filed by her in a magistrate court seeking action against the couple and five others under the Pre-conception and Pre-Natal Diagnostic Techniques (Prohibition of Sex Selection) (PCPNDT) Act.
Maintaining that that the petition filed by Deshpande had become infructuous in view of the fact that nothing incriminating was found against Shahrukh, his wife and five others in the findings of inquiry conducted by the BMC, Rao urged the high court to dismiss the case.
Among other things, the BMC counsel told the court that Deshpande had filed the complaint against the actor, his wife Gauri and five others before a magistrate merely on the basis of news paper reports.
Deshpande had earlier told the court that the metropolitan magistrate had on August 8 issued notice to the respondents and posted the matter for hearing on September 12.
Deshpande’s contention was that her complaint warranted early hearing on the ground that the Supreme Court had said that all cases under the PCPNDT Act should be heard and decided within six months.
On being informed that the complaint was to come up for hearing before the Magistrate later on Thursday or some time next, the judge adjourned the hearing for two weeks.
In her complaint filed in the court of Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Uday Padwad on August 8, Deshpande had alleged that the actor, his wife and five others had violated the provisions of the PCPNDT Act.
Alluding to the child born to Shah Rukh and Gauri through surrogacy in a private hospital in May this year, Deshpande - an activist spearheading a campaign against female foeticide in Maharashtra - had charged that the child’s gender had been determined before birth, in violation of the relevant sections of the Act.
Apart from Shah Rukh and his wife Gauri, Deshpande had named Mumbai Municipal Commissioner Sitaram Kunte, Executive Health Officer of the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) Dr Arun Bamane, the IVF expert at Jaslok Hospital Dr Firuza Parikh, Jaslok Hospital directors, and the competent authority in the state government in-charge of implementing the PCPNDT Act, as other respondents in her complaint.