What’s wrong if a woman with two girls wants boy as third child, HC asks Govt

Reserving its order on a petition challenging the law banning sex-determination tests, the Bombay High Court today had a query for the Central government’s counsel: If a woman has two daughters, what is wrong if she wants a boy as the third child?

Reserving its order on a petition challenging the law banning sex-determination tests, the Bombay High Court today had a query for the Central government’s counsel: If a woman has two daughters, what is wrong if she wants a boy as the third child?

Petitioners Vijay and Kirti Sharma, a Mumbai-based couple, are seeking amendment to the ‘Prenatal Diagnostic Tests (Regulation and Prevention of Misuse) Act’ of 2002 on the ground that it is a Constitutional right of parents to select the sex of their child before conception. The Sharmas, who filed the petition in 2005, have two daughters and they want a male child but the Act does not allow them to avail of sex determination techniques.

During arguments today before the division bench of Chief Justice Swatanter Kumar and Justice Ranjana Desai, the petitioners’ lawyer, Ratna Bhargava, contended that while the law permits an abortion in the early stages of pregnancy if it’s needed for her mental health, pre-natal tests and sex selection treatment are banned, which is a discrimination. This, she said, violates Article 14 (Right of Equality).

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The contention of the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare is that the sex ratio in the country has already been adversely affected because of female infanticide, foeticide and the situation will worsen if sex selection is allowed.

Bhargava also argued that if sex selection is allowed for couples who already have two daughters, it will give them ‘a balanced family’.

Appearing for intervener Varsha Deshpande of Dalit Mahila Vikas Mandal, advocate Uday Warunjikar opposed the petition, saying that right to having a family — balanced or not — was not a fundamental right. Bhargava also argued that sex selection treatment is allowed in the West and Indian couples went overseas to avail of them.