The Campaign Against Sex Selective Abortion (CASSA), a Chennai based NGO working in the field of eradicating the practice of sex selective abortion in Tamil Nadu, has plans to approach the court against the Tamil Nadu Government to establish a supervisory board to implement provisions of the Pre-Conception and Pre-Natal Diagnostic Techniques Act (PCPNDT) and Medical Termination of Pregnancy (MTP) Act.

According to the association, while many other states have implemented supervisory bodies consisting of doctors, social workers and lawyers to monitor the working of scan centres with a view to implement the ban on sex selective foeticide, the same has not been implemented in the state of Tamil Nadu. The Acts provide for a three-member panel to be appointed as the authorized authority to monitor the violations in relation to foetal sex determination and malpractices by scan centres.

The Tamil Nadu Government has not bothered to implement the same, and the responsibility is entrusted only with the State Director of Medical Education. The association may file a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) against the Government for violating the norms of the PCPNDT Act and MTP Act said the association office bearers.

According to the participants at a two day seminar held in Chennai last week on 'Strategies to Enforce the PCPNDT Act and MTP Act', organized by CASSA, proper and regular auditing and monitoring of the private scan centres would help to reduce sex selective abortion and foetal sex determination, besides revealing the malpractices done at these centres.

A few participants pointed out that doctors have to follow medical ethics and should follow the code of conduct. Though rules are there, the culprits have not been booked so far. The watchdogs of doctors' profession like the Indian Medical Association and the Medical Council of India were unable to prevent the malpractices going on within their community, alleged a section of the participants.

Defending the doctors' community, the Tamil Nadu Medical Council President KR Balasubramniam opined that doctors were also part of the society, and as in every sphere of life, some of them might be violating the ethics and code of conduct. If the doctors were found to have misused the pre-natal diagnostic techniques, the council lacks powers to take action against them, other than recommending the matter to the Government for appropriate action, said the TNMC president.