HC asks Maha to expedite applications of kidney transplant

Also asks state govt to file an affidavit within six weeks on steps taken in this regard

The Bombay High Court has asked the Maharashtra government to decide within four weeks the pending cases regarding approval of kidney transplants to recipients.

Hearing a clutch of petitions alleging delay in granting approvals to applications seeking kidney transplants under the Transplantation of Human Organs Act, the division bench of Justices A R Joshi and Abhay Oak asked the government to immediately provide infrastructure to authorisation committees set up for this purpose. The court also asked the state government to file an affidavit within six weeks on steps taken in this regard.

An authorisation committee is under an obligation to accept the applications made in accordance with sub-section 3 read with subsection (5) of section 9 of the Act, the court said in an order passed last week. It further said that such a committee cannot direct the applicants to apply through the hospitals concerned.

"We make it clear that only authorisation committee has the jurisdiction to entertain the aforesaid applications and no other authority can entertain such applications," Justices Joshi and Oak said in their order.

The court asked the government to take all possible steps to fill in all the vacant posts of members of authorisation committees.

Proper selection committees should be constituted so that vacancies can be filled in by appointing persons of repute and having good integrity and character, the bench said, adding that the government should fill in all the vacancies within a period of six weeks. The High Court further held that an authorisation committee should decide applications seeking kidney transplants within a period of four weeks of their submission.