BHUBANESWAR: In the first of such convictions, a doctor was sentenced to 30-month imprisonment for violating the Pre-Conception and Pre-Natal Diagnostic Techniques (PC&PNDT) Act. Court of Judicial Magistrate First Class, Bhubaneswar Bhanupratap Mishra convicted Dr Nabaneeta Padhy, medical director of Femelife Fertility Foundation Private Limited of Gajapati Nagar under Sections 23 and 25 of PC and PNDT Act.
The court also imposed a fine of Rs 9,000 on Dr Padhy and failure to pay will lead to five months of additional imprisonment. Another fine of Rs 1,000 was also imposed on her. The case dates back to August 30, 2019, when the Khurda Collector had asked officials concerned to inquire into clinics in the Capital to ascertain if the rules and provisions of the PC and PNDT Act are being abided by.
During verification at Femelife Fertility in Jayadev Vihar, a team found that the PC and PNDT licenses of the clinic had expired on September 15, 2018. This apart, irregularities were detected in Form-F (mandatory record having information like the name, address, and others of a pregnant woman undergoing ultrasound scan) and Form-G (a form of the consent).