CHENNAI: Expressing dismay over the denial of permission for a woman from West Bengal to donate her kidney for her ailing son for a transplant procedure to be performed at a private hospital in Chennai, the Madras High Court has stated that the mother should not be asked to prove her maternity through DNA tests.
Setting aside the rejection order of the authorisation committee of the Tamil Nadu health department, the court directed the committee to grant permission forthwith.
The observations and directions were made by Justice G R Swaminathan in an order passed on the petition filed by Rita Chaurasiya of Howrah in West Bengal and her son B Rohit Kumar Chaurasia, seeking a direction to the authorisation committee to clear her application for donating her kidney to her son.
The committee, by its order dated April 17, 2026, denied permission on the ground of the petitioners failing to establish their relationship. Rita and her son approached the court to set aside the rejection order and grant permission for the organ donation.
The judge, in the order passed on Thursday, said that a perusal of the Aadhaar and PAN cards of both the petitioners shows that Rita Chaurasiya is the wife of Ratan Lal Chaurasia and Rohit Kumar is none other than the son of Ratan Lal Chaurasia.
“Applying the principle of preponderance of probabilities, I am satisfied that the second petitioner (Rohit) is none other than the biological son of the first petitioner (Rita). Therefore, the first petitioner should not be called upon to undergo a DNA test to prove maternity,” he said.
The judge set aside the April 14, 2026 order of the authorisation committee and directed it to grant permission forthwith to Rita to donate her kidney to her without any delay.
When the donor claims that the recipient is none other than her own biological son, this court is unable to understand as to why the request of the petitioners has casually been ignored, he said.