Delhi High Court: While relying upon the Delhi High Court decision in Parveen Begum v. Appellate Authority, 2012 SCC OnLine Del 2839, the Single Bench of Sanjeev Sachdeva, J. has held that the mere existence of disparity in the income of the donor and the recipient by itself could not be a reason to reject an organ donation application.
The Authorization Committee of a hospital had rejected the petitioner’s application for undergoing kidney transplant. The donor was claimed to be the mother of the daughter-in- law of the recipient. The committee had observed that the donor had received cash from the recipient. On appeal, the Appellate Authority noted that the observation of the committee could not be substantiated and accordingly advised it to reconsider the matter. Later, the High Court directed the Appellate Authority to decide the case instead of remitting the same, since the delay was affecting the health of the petitioner. The appellant authority, thereafter, noting the economic disparity between the donor and the recipient, and stating that there was no sufficient ground to overrule the observations of the Authorization Committee, upheld the decision of the committee.
The Court noted that the Appellate Authority had made observations completely contrary to its observation in its previous order without providing any reasons for doing so. The Court also observed that the mere fact that the son of the recipient has stated that he would help his in-laws would not make the organ donation a commercial transaction or a transaction of the nature as is prohibited by the Act. Keeping in view the deteriorating health of the petitioner, the Authorization Committee was thus directed to forthwith grant its approval. [Sanjay Yogi Goel v. Union of India, 2017 SCC OnLine Del 8132, decided on 1-5-2017]