Chandigarh: The Punjab and Haryana high court has urged the Centre to swiftly introduce a legislation to regulate the preservation and disposal of blood — a process governed by executive instructions only and lacking any statutory mechanism in law.
A division bench comprising Chief Justice Sheel Nagu and Justice Anil Kshetarpal has passed the orders while disposing of a suo motu petition on the issue.
“With the hope and expectation that the central govt would act expeditiously in legislating an act to regulate preservation and disposal of blood to avoid any further grievance to the common man, this court draws curtain on the controversy by disposing of the petition with liberty to revisit the court in case any grievance remains un-redressed,” the bench has ordered.
The HC had taken suo motu cognisance of a representation dated March 23, 2017, received from Bathinda Association of NGO’s (Regd), that blood donated by volunteers at donation camps organised in Punjab was being sold to needy patients at exorbitant price. Two separate PILs were also filed on the same cause.
The status reports by various authorities of the central govt as well as Punjab and Haryana indicated that there was no statutory mechanism in law to regulate the process of sale of blood and as such the process was governed by executive instructions in the shape of guidelines issued by the Centre and state govts.
Responding to the issue, it had been informed that the Centre was contemplating formulating statutory provisions to regulate sale and disposal of blood preserved in blood banks. The HC has asked the Centre to finalise the law on the issue expeditiously and consider suggestions given by some of the petitioners if they were found appropriate.
