Bengaluru: The Karnataka high court has refused to quash criminal proceedings against three accused persons, including a radiologist working at a govt hospital in Ramanagara, in a case related to an alleged sex determination test.The case was registered after a woman, who already had two daughters, underwent a scan. It is alleged that the pregnancy was terminated after it was revealed that the foetus was female.Among the three accused who approached the high court were a couple from Byrapatna. They challenged the proceedings initiated against them under Section 4 of the Medical Termination of Pregnancy Act-1971 and Sections 3(5) and 91 of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita-2023.The radiologist, who is accused No. 1 in the case and had conducted the scanning procedure, separately challenged the case registered against him for an offence punishable under Section 23 of the Pre-Conception and Pre-Natal Diagnostic Techniques (Prohibition of Sex Selection) Act-1994.While the couple claimed that they had nothing to do with the case, the radiologist argued that he only conducted the scan and that the same was permissible in law. Justice M Nagaprasanna observed that the material on record, prima facie, indicated that the couple had deliberately sought to determine the sex of the unborn child. This quest, allegedly rooted in gender prejudice, led to a series of clandestine consultations, covert referrals and illegal medical interventions. Each accused is said to have played a distinct role—some as facilitators, some as intermediaries and others as medical professionals—forming a continuous chain of alleged culpability, the judge added.The court observed that the couple, accused no. 4 and 5, were not portrayed as passive or peripheral figures. Instead, they were allegedly the conduits through whom patients were procured and channelled for sex determination and the consequent sex-selective termination.According to the complaint, after the foetus was revealed to be female, monetary negotiations allegedly took place, medication was administered to terminate the pregnancy, and the woman was sent back. She reportedly suffered profuse bleeding the same night, resulting in the death of the foetus.The judge observed that at this preliminary stage, it would be inappropriate to examine the episode in isolation or exonerate individual accused by compartmentalising their roles, particularly when the allegations suggest a concerted and cumulative design.Female foeticide is not merely a statutory offence; it is a moral blight and a constitutional affront. The Supreme Court repeatedly underscored that leniency, at the threshold in such matters, risks rendering the law a dead letter and emboldening those who trade in gender discrimination under the cloak of medical expertise. The truth or otherwise of the allegations, the degree of individual culpability, and the veracity of evidence are all matters that properly belong to the crucible of trial, Justice Nagaprasanna added.
