The Madras High Court on Thursday ordered notices to Central and T.N. government officials on a writ appeal filed by the Tamil Nadu Ayush Sonologist Association against a single judge’s verdict in May that degree-holders in Indian systems of medicine such as Ayurveda, Unani, Homeopathy, Siddha and Naturopathy were not entitled to carry out ultrasonogram or ultrasound techniques and related diagnostic procedures, on pregnant women.
The First Division Bench of Chief Justice S.V. Gangapurwala and Justice P.D. Audikesavalu, ordered notices, returnable by September 25, to the Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, Ministry of AYUSH, Central Council of Indian Medicine, Director of Medical and Rural Health Services and the Tamil Nadu Board of Indian Medicine among others. Senior Counsel Nalini Chidambaram appeared on behalf of the appellant association and assailed the verdict of the single judge.
Dismissing the association’s writ petition pending in the High Court since 2017, Justice S.M. Subramaniam had held that the graduates in Indian systems of medicine could not be permitted to perform ultrasonogram and ultrasound techniques on pregnant women since they had not been authorised to do so under the Pre-Conception and Pre-Natal Diagnostic Techniques (Prohibition of Sex Selection) Act of 1994.
