Sat Jan 04 07:09:14 UTC 2025: ## Delhi High Court Quashes FIR Against Doctor Accused of Sex Determination
**New Delhi, January 4, 2025** – The Delhi High Court has quashed a First Information Report (FIR) against a woman doctor accused of disclosing a foetus’s sex, citing insufficient evidence to support the allegations. The case stemmed from a 2020 raid at an ultrasound center in Hari Nagar, where a decoy operation allegedly revealed the doctor performed an ultrasound on an undercover patient, and another individual at the lab disclosed the sex of the foetus.
Justice Chandra Dhari Singh ruled that while the doctor performed the ultrasound, there was no evidence to prove she violated the Pre-Conception and Pre-Natal Diagnostic Techniques (PC and PNDT) Act. The court’s order stated that the allegations only implicated the doctor in performing the ultrasound, with no evidence suggesting she contravened Section 4 (concerning pre-diagnostic techniques), Section 5, or Section 6 (relating to the determination and communication of the foetus’s sex) of the PC and PNDT Act.
The judge further noted the inordinate delay in filing a chargesheet, over three years after the incident, contributing to the decision to quash the FIR to prevent further harassment of the doctor. The prosecution argued that the doctor conducted the ultrasound and a co-accused disclosed the sex, but the court deemed this insufficient to establish a prima facie case. The doctor had sought the quashing of the FIR, arguing the prolonged delay indicated a lack of evidence against her and that the ongoing case was harming her reputation.
First Piper 