PHHC: Seeks Details of ICU Facilities, Decision on Women’s Property Rights

The Punjab and Haryana High Court (PHHC) sought an explanation from the Panjab government as to why Computed Tomography (CT) scan and Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) machines were not essential facilities in every district hospital in the state. Responding to a petition filed by a resident from Malerkotla highlighting serious deficiencies in the healthcare infrastructure at the district hospital in Malerkotla, especially the absence of an Intensive Care Unit (ICU), the court sought district-wise details of ICU facilities in district hospitals. It noted that MRI machines were available in only six out of 23 districts, and termed the situation ‘unfortunate’. Meanwhile, in a ruling for older couples seeking parenthood, PHHC quashed a state authority order denying a 47-year-old woman and her husband’s access to assisted reproductive technology (ART), including In Vitro Fertilization (IVF) with donor eggs. A gynaecologist had certified the couple medically fit for IVF but initially refused treatment citing the husband’s age exceeding the 55-year limit under the Assisted Reproductive Technology (Regulation) Act, 2021. In a landmark gender judgement, the Punjab and Haryana High Court (PHHC) struck down a 40-year old curb on widow’s right to sell land stating that any custom or restriction curtailing the right of a female to alienate a non-ancestral property inherited by her from her husband is inherently discriminatory. The court was hearing a petition on a widow’s right to sell land without consulting the husband’s relatives who belonged to the Meo community in Mewat region in Haryana. The order added that ‘any custom which seeks to curtail, dilute, or abrogate the proprietary rights of a female exclusively based on religion, gender, or sex-based classification is inherently vulnerable to challenge and cannot withstand the constitutional mandate of equality enshrined under Articles 14 and 15 of the Constitution of India’. Concurrently, a pastor kept a 21-year-old woman in illegal detention at an undisclosed location for over three weeks in Khanna, Ludhiana district. The accused, Chaman Lal Masih, was arrested after the girl was rescued by social activists led by Nihang Singhs (traditional Sikh warriors) of Taruna Dal on 29 Jan. The family alleged they submitted a written complaint to police on 9 Jan but no concrete action was taken.