Maharashtra Medical Council suspends Radiologist over PC PNDT Violation
License Suspended
Pune: Six years after a civil court had convicted a Pune-based radiologist for illegal sex determination, the Maharashtra Medical Council suspended her license for a period of five years for violating the rules under the Pre-Conception and Prenatal Diagnostic Techniques (PC-PNDT) Act.
Confirming this, the administrator of MMC, Dr. Vinky Rughwani, informed Indian Express that they recently passed an order to suspend Dr Neena Mathrani's license.
However, Dr. Rughwani refused to comment on the cause of the delay in the Council's action in the case, which originally dates back to 2011.
"I took charge just last year. We are doing our best to reduce the backlog of cases. A hearing will be conducted soon regarding at least 20 other cases where rules of the PC-PNDT Act have been violated. We examined the Pune case and had also received a communique from the municipal corporation. After studying the details, we decided to suspend Dr Mathrani’s licence for five years," he told Indian Express.
Medical Dialogues had earlier reported that the case surfaced in the year 2011 when the Pune-based radiologist and a gynaecologist were found involved in violating the PCPNDT Act. Both the doctors were exposed after a couple, who was sent to the Gynaecologist as a decoy, conducted a sting operation in 2011. Reportedly, after taking Rs 9,000 from the couple, the Gynaecologist had sent them to the radiologist's clinic for the sex-determination test.
Kiran Moghe, an activist with the Janwadi Sanghatana, and other organisations, conducted the sting operation in 2011. The activist found that a sonography centre and a medical termination of pregnancy (MTP) centre at a hospital in the area were conducting sex-determination tests. Primary investigations conducted by the state family welfare department and the municipal corporation found that the doctors had been conducting sex-determination tests and abortions for a long time.
Dr. Mathrani and Dr. Makarand Ranade (Gynaecologist, who passed away during the court trial), were found to have committed irregularities including incorrect filling of Form F that records the medical history of a pregnant woman, not obtaining consent of the pregnant t woman and flouting the rules that prohibit determining and communicating the sex of the foetus. Back then, the Appropriate Authority for implementing the PC-PNDT Act in the PMC was Dr. Vaishali Jadhav who had filed the complaint.
Consequently, back in 2019, during the hearing of the case, Judicial Magistrate (First Class) Vishakha Patil convicted the radiologist under Pre-Conception and Pre-Natal Diagnostic Tests (PCPNDT) Act, 1994.
At that time, the court had held the radiologist convicted vide section 248 of the Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC) for an offence punishable under the PCPNDT Act, 1994, and its amendment Act of 2002. It had directed the doctor to pay Rs 10,000 as a fine for a total breach of the rules. Apart from this, she was also directed to undergo three years of rigorous imprisonment and another simple imprisonment for five months if she failed to pay the fine. Meanwhile, the other accused, the Gynaecologist had died during the trial.
Indian Express has reported that according to Pune Municipal Corporation's legal department, the case is in appeal in the sessions court. A procedure has been outlined under Section 23(2) of the PC-PNDT Act, 1994, for reporting a registered medical practitioner's name to the State Medical Council when a court frames charges against them for violating the Act.
Commenting on the delay on the part of state medical council to take action, Moghe, who is currently a member of PMC's advisory committee to implement the Act, termed the delay by the council to take action as unfortunate. "The MMC has literally dragged its feet to take statutory action when a clear conviction was given in the case so many years ago," she told the Daily.
Dr. Rupali Budhkar, a medical officer with the PC-PNDT cell in PMC, however, said that as per the guidelines, details of the case had been sent to the MMC back in 2019.
