The High Court asked the Delhi government on Friday to take an “appropriate decision” on a recommendation by the Delhi Commission for Protection of Child Rights (DCPCR) to ban unnecessary sex-selective surgeries on intersex infants except in cases of life-threatening situations.
A Bench of Chief Justice Satish Chandra Sharma and Justice Subramonium Prasad was hearing a petition by an NGO — Srishti Madurai Educational Research Foundation — seeking a ban on such procedures.
The court recorded that DCPCR in its report stated that “after careful deliberations”, it was of the 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”.
The High Court gave the Delhi government eight weeks to take a decision based on the recommendations made by the DCPCR.
The petition, filed through advocate Robin Raju, stated that sex-selective surgeries or “medically unnecessary normalising surgeries” have a long-lasting and drastic psychological impact on the minds of intersex people and such procedures deter them from even seeking medical attention in future.
