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The Delhi High Court has asked the Delhi government to file an “up-to-date” report on the status of the draft policy on sex-selective surgeries on “intersex infants and children”.
The counsel appearing for the Delhi government handed over an August 25 letter before a single-judge bench of Justice Jasmeet Singh and said that a “committee” under the chairmanship of “Dean, Maula Azad Medical College, had been constituted by the Directorate General of Health Services” for drafting such a policy.
The HC, in its September 4 order, thereafter said, “Keeping in view the letter dated 25.08.2023, as of today, I am not inclined to issue contempt notice. Let the matter be listed after eight weeks for the respondent to file an up-to-date status report indicating the status of the draft policy”. The matter is next listed on November 20.
The HC was hearing a plea seeking contempt action against the Delhi government for alleged non-compliance with the HC’s July 27, 2022, division bench order. In the order, the Delhi government was granted eight weeks to decide on the recommendations made by the Delhi Commission for Protection of Child Rights (DCPCR) on the issue of sex-selective surgeries.
An ‘intersex’ person is someone whose genitals, chromosomes, or reproductive organs don’t fit into a male/female sex binary.
In the previous plea filed in 2021 by NGO Srishti Madurai Educational Trust, a prayer had been made seeking direction to the Delhi government to implement the DCPCR’s opinion.
The plea had also sought an order declaring a ban on “medically unnecessary” sex-selective surgeries on intersex infants and children, and an order to direct the Delhi government to frame a detailed policy or guidelines specifying the conditions when such surgery on intersex infants can be performed.
In January 2021, the DCPCR made this recommendation to the Delhi government after receiving a plea which stated that in many instances, intersex people are treated as disabled and approached through a medical lens, ‘reducing’ them to an ‘impairment’ which leads to them being subjected to medical interventions which can lead to long-term impairments.
As part of its recommendations, the commission had also advised that the health department include people who are intersex, “or from a similar marginalised background”, to be a formal part of a committee to look into the matter.
In its July 27, 2022 order the HC had noted these recommendations of the DCPCR in its report which also said that the inclusion of intersex persons in the committee would “ensure that the community is adequately represented, and their voices heard in the decision”.
“After careful deliberations, the Commission is of the considered opinion that the Government of Delhi should declare a ban on medically unnecessary, sex-selective surgeries on intersex infants and children except in cases of life-threatening situations and advises the government accordingly. With this recommendation, the petition would be henceforth considered disposed of,” the DCPR had said in its report, as noted in the HC’s July 2022 order.
After the Delhi government’s counsel sought some time to take an “appropriate decision” on DCPCR’s recommendations, the HC had in its July 2022 order granted them eight weeks’ time.
During the course of the hearing of the contempt plea on September 4, the counsel appearing for the petitioner foundation said that despite these directions, the respondent authorities had not taken any action.
