NEW DELHI: A Public Interest Litigation (PIL) has been filed in the Supreme Court by former Head of the Department of Surgical Disciplines at AIIMS, New Delhi, Dr Anurag Srivastava, seeking directions to the Centre to declare cancer a notifiable disease to ensure uniform and mandatory reporting of cancer cases across India.
In the petition, filed through advocate Gaurav Kumar Bansal, Dr Srivastava urged the Supreme Court to direct the Union Government and State Governments to establish a centralised, real-time digital cancer registry on the lines of the CoWIN portal. The proposed registry would integrate existing datasets, including the National Cancer Registry Programme (NCRP), Hospital-Based Cancer Registries (HBCRs), Population-Based Cancer Registries (PBCRs), Ayushman Bharat–PMJAY, State health insurance schemes, mortality records and hospital information systems, with appropriate safeguards for data accuracy, privacy and accountability.
The plea also sought directions to the Centre and States to formulate and implement nationwide cancer screening programmes at Primary Health Centres (PHCs) and Community Health Centres (CHCs), targeting high-risk and age-based population groups.
Further, the petitioner asked the Court to direct the authorities to frame a clear policy on unverified, religious or alternative therapies for cancer treatment, including remedies such as gomutra, and to regulate misinformation to protect public health. The PIL also called for ensuring the availability of affordable, evidence-based cancer treatment — including modern medicine as well as evidence-based AYUSH therapies — at all tertiary and district-level hospitals.
Dr Srivastava also sought directions for the establishment of a dedicated National Cancer Care Fund to support treatment costs, anti-cancer drugs, diagnostic equipment and palliative care, with the aim of reducing the financial burden on poor, underprivileged and vulnerable patients and their families.
The petition further urged the Court to direct the Union and State Governments to strengthen death certification and institutionalise death audits for cancer patients to ensure accurate reporting, identify systemic gaps and improve the quality of care. It also sought a time-bound roadmap for expanding PBCRs to ensure adequate representation of all States and rural areas, with particular emphasis on underrepresented States such as Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana and Odisha.
In his plea, Dr Srivastava stated that despite being one of the leading causes of death in India, cancer remains outside the ambit of mandatory notification. This, he argued, has resulted in fragmented data, weak surveillance and policy paralysis in addressing the growing cancer burden.
He highlighted that health is primarily a State subject under Entry 6 of List II of the Seventh Schedule to the Constitution, and that both the Union and State Governments have the power to legislate and notify diseases within their respective domains. However, this concurrent jurisdiction has led to a legal lacuna, with some States having notified cancer as a disease while others have not.
“The absence of uniformity has led to disparities in reporting, monitoring and early intervention across States. This inconsistency has resulted in a critical policy failure, with patients in many States being diagnosed only at advanced stages, when curative treatment becomes difficult, expensive or impossible,” the plea stated.
Dr Srivastava further pointed out that the Indian Council of Medical Research’s NCRP currently covers only about 10 per cent of India’s population, with rural coverage as low as 1 per cent. Large States such as Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana and Odisha remain significantly underrepresented. He noted that both the NCRP Policy Brief, 2020, and the 139th Report of the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Health and Family Welfare had recommended that cancer be declared a notifiable disease, but these recommendations have yet to be implemented.