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District Appropriate Authority under the PNDT Act and Chief District Health Officer vs Jashmina Dilip Devda

Not available · 2024 INSC 173Decided 4 Mar 2024
Not available

Background

Following a complaint and an inspection at "Dev Hospital" in Ahmedabad in 2010, the appropriate authority under the PC&PNDT Act found violations and suspended the hospital's PNDT registration without prior notice. After an appellate authority asked for clarification on which provision was being invoked, the authority passed a fresh order purporting to suspend the registration "in the public interest" under Section 20(3) of the Act (an exceptional power that allows suspension without notice). Both the Gujarat High Court's Single Judge and Division Bench set aside the suspension, finding no proper notice or reasoned public-interest justification had been given.

Decision Breakdown

The Supreme Court clarified the structure of Section 20: sub-sections (1) and (2) allow suspension or cancellation only after notice, a hearing, and the Advisory Committee's advice, upon a proven breach; sub-section (3), by contrast, is an independent, exceptional, "notwithstanding" power to suspend without notice, but only where the authority forms and records a specific opinion that immediate action is necessary or expedient in the public interest. Examining both suspension orders, the Court found neither properly invoked Section 20(3) with the required recorded public-interest reasoning: the second order merely repeated the same contravention allegations from the first, without explaining why urgent, notice-free action was necessary. It upheld the High Court's decision and dismissed the appeal, declining to order revival of the registration since the hospital was already operational again.

Lesson Learnt

A regulator's power to bypass ordinary notice-and-hearing safeguards in the "public interest" is an exceptional, sparingly-used power that requires the authority to explicitly record why urgent action is necessary. It cannot be used as a routine substitute for the standard notice-based suspension or cancellation process.

Official source (sci.gov.in)View Judgment (PDF)

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