HC tells state to decide on minor's plea for kidney transplant

Coming to the rescue of a minor boy, the Bombay High Court has asked State Authorisation Committee, set up by Maharashtra government under the Human Organs Transplantation Act, to decide his plea for kidney transplant as soon as possible.
The direction was given by a bench comprising Justices Abhay Oak and K K Tated on a petition filed by the boy.
The 17-year-old boy, a resident of Nerul in Navi Mumbai, has been advised by doctors to undergo kidney transplant urgently. He has been suffering from renal failure since birth and requires dialysis three to four times a day, the court was informed yesterday.

A person working in the office of the boy's mother had offered to donate one of his kidneys to the victim. Accordingly, on January 1, the donor and recipient made a joint application to the State Authorisation Committee and a private hospital in Pune to consider the kidney transplant.
However, their plea was not considered. Being aggrieved, the boy moved the High Court through his parents for urgent relief.
Petitioner's lawyer Uday Warunjkar argued that the State Authorisation Committee had insisted that the joint application of donor and recipient should be routed through recognised private hospitals. However, the hospital refused to consider this.

Government pleader Sandip Shinde submitted that the State Authorisation Committee did not have the necessary infrastructure to make inquiries and ensure that there was no commercial transaction in kidney transplant cases.
The bench asked the state government to file an affidavit giving details about the State Authorisation Committees set up under the Act.