Kerala High Court: The Bench of Anu Sivaraman, J. hearing a petition pertaining to kidney transplantation and donation, directed the issue to be decided by Committee for Transplantation of Human Organs in accordance with Section 9(3) of the Transplantation of Human Organs and Tissues Act, 1994.
Petitioner’s application for kidney transplantation was placed before Medical Trust Hospital’s Organ Transplantation Committee (2nd respondent), but it was not forwarded to 1st respondent for want of favourable certificates by the Deputy Superintendent of Police (DSP/3rd respondent).
In the instant case, the donor was the wife of one Anoop who was working as a Packing Supervisor at Amal Threads at Muvattupuzha. Owner of Amal Threads was the sister-in-law of petitioner herein. Elder child of the donor was suffering from epilepsy and under treatment. Petitioner and his family had agreed to make arrangements for treatment of the donor’s daughter.
The Court noted that 1st respondent is the authority empowered to consider the issue of transplantation of human organs where the donor is a known person is to be considered as per Section 9 (3) of the Act. All relevant aspects, including the relationship between the parties, bonafides of the application, whether any amounts have changed hands – all these matters must be considered by 1st respondent in accordance with law. The report of DSP is liable to be considered by 1st respondent while passing such orders.
In view of the above, the petitioner’s application was directed to be forwarded to 1st respondent along with the DSP’s report. 1st respondent was directed to consider petitioner’s application taking note of all the relevant aspects, and consider whether the donation was being done on an altruistic basis. It was directed that orders on the said application be passed with notice to donor and donee within two weeks, and after considering whether the donor was fully aware of the consequences of her action. [Asees Moitheen v. District Level Authorization Committee for Transplantation of Human Organs, 2019 SCC OnLine Ker 749, Order dated 28-02-2019]
