NEW DELHI: The High Court has asked the state government to file an up-to-date report on the status of a draft policy regarding sex-selective surgeries on intersex infants and children.
The court passed the order after it was informed by the counsel for the Delhi government that a committee under the chairmanship of the Dean of Maulana Azad Medical College (MAMC) was constituted by the Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS) for drafting such a policy.
The order came while the hearing a petition seeking contempt action against the Delhi government for alleged non-compliance to the high court’s September 27, 2022 order by which the state was granted eight weeks to take appropriate decision on the recommendations made by the Delhi Commission for Protection of Child Rights (DCPCR) on the issue of sex-selective surgeries.
Sex-selective surgeries involve medical procedures performed on intersex infants, who may not display all biological differences at birth, with reproductive organs that don’t fit into a male/female binary.
In the main petition, the DCPCR had recommended that the government should declare a ban on medically unnecessary sex-selective surgeries on intersex infants and children except for severe conditions.
