Union Of India Ministery Of Human Resource Development Through Secretary vs. Songologist Association Of Punjab And Ors Through Its President Dr G S Gill Mbbs Ms

L\200 ITEM NO.4 COURT NO.5 SECTION PIL(W)

S U P R E M E C O U R T O F I N D I A RECORD OF PROCEEDINGS

Writ Petition(s)(Civil) No(s). 349/2006

VOLUNTARY HEALTH ASS. OF PUNJAB Petitioner(s)

VERSUS

UNION OF INDIA & ORS. Respondent(s)

(with appln. (s) for clarification and directions and exemption from filing O.T. and further direction and impleadment as party respondent and permission and office report)

WITH SLP(Crl) No. 5800/2013 (With Office Report)

W.P.(C) No. 575/2014 (With Office Report)

W.P.(C) No. 341/2008 (With appln.(s) for permission to file additional documents and Office Report)

Date : 17/11/2015 This petition was called on for hearing today.

CORAM : HON'BLE MR. JUSTICE DIPAK MISRA

For Petitioner(s) Mr. Colin Gonsalves, Sr. Adv. Mr. Divya Jyoti Jaipuriar, Adv. Ms. Jyoti Mendiratta, AOR SLP 5800/13 Ms. Ruchi Kohli, AOR

WP 575/14 Mr. Kapil Joshi, Adv. Ms. Manju Sharma Jetley, AOR

For Respondent(s) Ms. Binu Tamta, Adv. Ms. Sunita Sharma, Adv. Signature Not Verified

Mr. Ajay Sharma, Adv. Digitally signed by

Gulshan Kumar Arora Date: 2015.11.26

17:42:49 IST Reason:

Mr. Zaid Ali, Adv. Mr. Shadman Ali, Adv. Mr. R.R. Rajesh, Adv. 2

Ms. Gunwant Dara, Adv. Mr. D.S. Mahra, AOR

Chhattisgarh Mr. C.D. Singh, AAG Mr. A.P. Mayee, Adv. Ms. Sakshi Kakkar, Adv.

HON'BLE MR. JUSTICE SHIVA KIRTI SINGH Mr. S.S. Rawat, Adv. Ms. Sunita Sharma, Adv.

		Mr.<br>Charudatta Mahindrakar, Adv.<br>Mr.<br>A. Selvin Raja, Adv.
U.P.		Mr.<br>Ranjit Rao, AAG<br>Mr.<br>Abhisth Kumar, Adv.<br>Mr.<br>Gaurav Srivastava, Adv.<br>Mr.<br>Ravi Prakash Mehrotra, Adv.
Jharkhand		Mr. Anil Kumar Jha, AOR<br>Mr. R.K. Ojha, Adv.<br>Ms. Alka Jha, Adv.
Arunachal Pradesh	desh	Mr. Anil Shrivastav, Adv.<br>Mr. Rituraj Biswas, Adv.
Tripura		Mr. Gopal Singh, Adv.<br>Mr. Rituraj Biswas, Adv.<br>Ms. Varsha Poddar, Adv.
		Mr. Anip Sachthey, AOR
		Mr. Arun K. Sinha, AOR
		Mr. Arvind Kumar Sharma, AOR
Manipur		Mr.<br>Sapam Biswajit Meitei, Adv.<br>Mr.<br>Z.H. Isaac Haiding, Adv.<br>Mr.<br>Ashok Kumar Singh, AOR<br>Mr.<br>B. Khusbanshi, Adv.
		Mr. Avijit Bhattacharjee, AOR
Nagaland		Mrs. K. Enatoli Sema, Adv.<br>Mr. Edward Belho, Adv.<br>Amit Kumar Singh, Adv.
		Mr. Balaji Srinivasan, AOR
Tamil Nadu		Mr. B. Balaji, AOR<br>Mr. C.M. sundaram, Adv.<br>Mr. R. Shase, Adv.
		Mr. B.S. Banthia, AOR
		Mr. D. Mahesh Babu, AOR<br>3
	Mr.	Mr. Gaurav Kejriwal, AOR
Bihar	Mr.<br>Mr.	Mr. Gopal Singh, AOR<br>Mr. Shreys Jain, Adv.
Uttarakhand	Mr.<br>Mr.	Mr. Tanmaya Agarwal, Adv.<br>Mr. Jatinder Kumar Bhatia, AOR
	Mr.	Mr. Jay Kishor Singh, AOR
	Mr.	Mr. Milind Kumar, AOR
	Mr.	Mr. P.N. Gupta, AOR
	Mr.	Mr. P.V. Dinesh, AOR
Mizoram	Mr.<br>Mr.<br>Mr.<br>Mr.<br>Mr.<br>Mr.	Pragyan Sharma, Adv.<br>Shikhar Garg, Adv.<br>T.L.V. Ramachari, Adv.<br>K.V.L. Raghavan, Adv.<br>Hitesh Kumar Sharma, Adv.<br>P.V. Yogeswaran, AOR

Meghalaya	Mr.<br>Mr.	Mr. Ranjan Mukherjee, AOR<br>Mr. S.C. Ghosh, Adv.
Haryana	Mr.<br>Dr.<br>Mr.<br>Dr.<br>Mr.	Dinesh Chander Yadav, AAG<br>Deepak Thukra, Adv.<br>A.S. Rishi, Adv.<br>Sukhdev Sharma, Adv.<br>Sanjay Kumar Visen, AOR
	Mrs.	Mrs. B. Sunita Rao, AOR
	Mr.	Mr. Shibashish Misra, AOR
	Mr.	Mr. Shriram P. Pingle, AOR
	Mr.	Mr. T. Harish Kumar, AOR
	Mr.	Mr. T.V. George, AOR
Puducherry	Mr.	Mr. V.G. Pragasam, AOR
	Mr.	Mr. V. N. Raghupathy, AOR
	Mr.<br>Ms.<br>Ms.	Mr. Sanjay Parikh, Adv.<br>Ms. Ninni Susan<br>Ms. Anitha Shenoy, AOR
	Ms.	Ms. C.K. Sucharita, AOR<br>4
Assam	For	Ms. Vartika Walia, Adv.<br>for M/s Corporate Law Group
Andaman & Nicobar	obar	Mr. K.V. Jagdishvaran, Adv.<br>Ms. G. Indira, AOR
Gujarat		Ms. Hemantika Wahi, AOR<br>Ms. Jesal Wahi, Adv.<br>Ms. Vinakshi Kadan, Adv.
		Ms. Kamini Jaiswal, AOR
H.P.		Mr. Suryanarayana Singh, AAG<br>Ms. Pragati Neekhra, AOR
		Ms. Rachana Srivastava, AOR
Rajasthan		Mr.<br>S.S. Shamshery, Adv.<br>Mr.<br>Amit Sharma, Adv.<br>Mr.<br>Ishu Prayash, Adv.<br>Ms.<br>Ruchi Kohli, AOR
		Ms. Sushma Suri, AOR
		Mr. Merusagar Samantaray, AOR
MCI		Mr. Dhawal Mohan, Adv.<br>Mr. Prateek Bhatia, Adv.<br>Gaurav Sharma, AOR
Sikkim	For	Ms. Aruna Mathur, AOR<br>Mr. Avneesh Arputham, Adv.<br>Mr. Yusuf Khan, Adv.<br>Ms. Anuradha Arputham, Adv.<br>Mr. Shobit Nanda, Adv.<br>M/s. Arputham Aruna & Co.
J & K		Mr.<br>G.M. Kawoosa, Adv.

	Mr.<br>Sunil Fernandes, AOR<br>Ms.<br>Astha Sharma, Adv.<br>Ms.<br>Mithu Jain, Adv.
Punjab	Mr. Ajay Bansal, AAG<br>Mr. Kuldip Singh, AOR<br>Mr. Gaurav Yadava, Adv.
	Mr. Ram Naresh Yadav, AOR
Telengana	Mr. S. Udaya Kumar Sagar, Adv.<br>Mr. Krishna Kumar Singh, Adv.
Maharashtra	Mr. Mahaling Pandarge, AAG<br>5
	Mr. Nishant Katneshwarkar, AOR
Chandigarh	Ms. Udita Singh, Adv,<br>Mr. Chandra Prakash, Adv.
West Bengal	Mr.<br>Joydeep Mazumdar, Adv.<br>Mr.<br>Parijat Sinha, Adv.<br>Ms.<br>Reshmi Rea Sinha, Adv.<br>Ms.<br>Sweety Chattopadhyay, Adv.
Madhya Pradesh	Mr. Mishra Saurabh, Adv.<br>Ms. Vanshaja Shukla, Adv.<br>Mr. Ankit Kumar Lal, Adv.
Kerala	Mr. Ramesh babu, Adv.
	Mr. Anupam Lal Das, Adv.<br>Mr. Sahil Monga, Adv.
	Mr. Guntur Prabhakar, Adv.<br>Ms. Prerna Singh, Adv.

UPON hearing the counsel the Court made the following O R D E R

On 15.09.2015, while reproducing the earlier parts of the order pertaining to other States, the State of Orissa was directed to provide the Committee relevant documents especially the documents which are required for eradicating the deficiencies pointed out by the Committee. The documents were filed by the State in pursuance of our order and the Committee has filed a report pertaining to the State of Orissa.

Mr. Gonsalves, learned senior counsel appearing for the petitioners have drawn our attention to paragraphs 3 and 4 of the report. They read as follows :

"3. AS & MD (NHM) welcomed the participants of the meeting. JS (RCH) read out the Order dated 15.09.2015 passed by the Hon'ble Supreme Court in Writ Petition (C) No. 349/2006 specifying the mandate given to the committee for the scheduled meeting. He clarified that the purpose of this meeting to scrutinize and validate the data regarding the figures on sex ratio at birth and the follow up action taken by the State on the SIMC reports. 6

4. The State of Odisha had cited the data on Sex Ratio at Birth from the Civil Registration of

births of State. State Provided the relevant data and C.D. M.O, Odisha. There are 314 rural registration units & 100 urban registration units I 30 districts in Odisha State. All the data is based on the records of civil registration system. The Sex Ratio at Birth (SRB) data fro the year 2013 submitted in the affidavit is 886 whereas as per the records submitted by the State data for the same period is 890. The representatives of the State clarified that in the affidavit, the figures were provisional."

Mr. Gonsalves, learned senior counsel has also filed a chart containing 'District-wise Sex Ratio at Birth of Odhsia State' commencing from the year 2010 to 2014. The said chart is reproduced below :

"DISTRICT WISE SEX RATIO AT BIRTH OF ODISHA STATE

Sl.	Sl. Name of the District	2010	20	2011	2012	2013	2014	14
No.<br>1	2	3		4	5	6	7
1	Anugul	894		900	879	890	904	1
2	Balasore	923		891	912	870	870	י<br>ר
3	Bargarh	923		889	913	891	913	3
4	Bhadrak	923		891	876	883	875	5
5	Bolangir	945		930	933	950	939	9
6	Boudh	983		957	936	934	918	2
7	Cuttack	860		874	860	854	843	3
8	Deogarh	896		954	958	954	938	3
9	Dhenkanal	856		833	850	845	849	3
10	Gajapati	875		930	927	890	892	>
11	Ganjam	902		880	867	813	794	-
12	Jagatsinghpur	912		905	842	777	852	2
13	Jajpur	863		876	828	824	823	-<br>3
14	Jharsuguda	859		902	882	908	878	3
15	Kalahandi	888		935	968	989	942	2
16	Kandhamal	912		943	950	962	940	)
			7
17	Kendrapara		881	836		828	734	705
18	Keonjhar		934	923		950	965	930
19	Khurda		892	876		884	885	842
20	Korapaut		935	943		960	945	942
21	Malkangiri		948	947		993	942	935
22	Mayurbhanj		955	934		936	931	933
23	Nawarangpur		962	932		936	979	965
24	Nayagarh		874	859		774	844	811
25	Nuapada		945	956		955	909	1055
26	Puri		933	888		874	873	854
27	Rayagada		955	954		939	931	945
28	Sambalpur		906	918		908	891	903
29	Subarnapur		940	934		946	939	965
30	Sundargarh		911	892		865	897	906
31	ODISHA		911	902		896	886	889"

It is submitted by Mr. Gonsalves that the ratio has fallen in number of districts, for when the sex-ratio reduces below 900, there is a signal of a social disaster. He has pointed out too many districts where it has fallen below 900 and drawn our attention to two districts, namely, Kendrapara and Ganjam to highlight that the sex ratio has gone down to 705 and 794 in 2014. Be it stated, we have mentioned the two districts only to highlight that how the sex ratio has fallen in the year 2014 than what it was

in 2010. It is a critical situation to be taken note of by the State Government as well as by the Committee in question.

At this juncture, we may note with profit that on the earlier occasion, Ms Anitha Shenoy, learned counsel had referred to Rule 18A of the Pre-conception and Pre-natal Diagnostic Techniq ues (Prohibition of Sex Selection) Rules 1996. It is pointed by Mr. Parekh that the said rule had been brought into existence in 2014. Sub-rule (6) of Rule 18A provides that all the appropriate authorities including the State, District and sub-district shall submit quarterly progress report to the Government India through the State Government and maintain Form 'H' for keeping the 8

information of all the registrations made readily available. The Committee was directed to apprise us about the quarterly reports. A status report as on 31.10.2015 has been brought on record as Annexure-II. On a scrutiny of the report, we find that the States like, Assam, Bihar, Gujarat, Haryana, Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh, Manipur, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Punjab, Sikkim, Tamil Nadu, Telangana, Tripura and uttar Pradesh have not furnished the quarterly report. Apart from the above States, Union Territories of Andaman & Nicobar Islands, Delhi and Lakshadweep have also not filed their quarterly report as on that date.

The States and Union Territories which have not filed their quarterly report as on that date, shall file the same before the concerned Committee on or before 30.11.2015.

We may further direct that unless it is specified by the Union of India or the Committee, the quarterly report by each of the State and Union Territory shall be furnished to the competent authority by 10th of each succeeding month.

Having heard learned counsel for the parties, we are of the considered opinion that the hearing should commence for the writ petition and the interlocutory applications which have been filed from time to time should be dealt with finally and accordingly for the said purpose, let the matter be listed on 12.01.2016.

Learned counsel for the parties shall file the written notes of submissions by 05.01.2016.

(Gulshan Kumar Arora) (H.S. Parasher) Court Master Court Master