Wed Oct 23 15:33:21 UTC 2024: Published – October 23, 2024 09:03 pm IST – BengaluruThe High Court of Karnataka has questioned the conduct of the State health authorities for registering a criminal case against an ultrasound scanning centre for operating “without a valid licence” when the authorities themselves had kept the centre’s application for renewal of licence pending for about two years.
The court directed that henceforth applications submitted for renewal of licence under Section 19 of the Pre-conception and Pre-natal Diagnostic Techniques (Prohibition of Sex Selection) Act, 1994, will have to be disposed of in a month’s period from the date of receipt.If the officers fail to dispose them within a month then they should incur the wrath of facing disciplinary proceedings for dereliction of duty, as the callousness of those officers will lead to unnecessary registration of criminal case against the diagnostic centres/laboratories having ultrasound scanning facilities, the court said.
Justice M. Nagaprasanna passed the order while quashing the criminal case registered against B. Gopala Krishna, proprietor of Sree Venkateshwara Clinical laboratory on Nagawara Main Road in Bengaluru, and 60-year-old medical practitioner Somu Elangovan S.K., who is associated with the laboratory.
The court made it clear that non-renewal of licence of any laboratory cannot become an offence against those clinics/laboratories if they have submitted application for renewal within the time along with all necessary documents.
The district health and family welfare officers had inspected the petitioner’s laboratory twice in February 2024 and seized an ultrasound scanning machine, and later registered a criminal case before the metropolitan magistrate court against the petitioners for operating the laboratory “without valid licence.”However, the court found that the petitioners had on September 26, 2022, submitted application for renewal of licence as their licence was to end on October 29, 2022. The application was kept in cold storage and inspection of the laboratory was conducted in February 2024, and criminal case registered for operating without a valid licence.
Published – October 23, 2024 09:03 pm IST
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