“For the purposes of the Act, the powers to curb such transactions cannot be extended to formulate executive instructions giving only a domicile of a State to be able to register himself or herself for organ donation, as a recipient as there is no nexus sought to be achieved,” the Court observed.
It was also noted that he Citizenship Act grants certain rights to only Indian citizens. Even though such rights are not available to an OCI, they rights cannot be read to restrict the availability of rights to a ‘person’ under Articles 14 and Article 21 of the Constitution of India.
“The whole object of making of the Act is to stem the propensity of commercialization of organ transplantation and by bringing in a requisite of being a domicile of a State cannot in any manner foster the purposes of the Act and therefore, on the touchstone of this test such a requirement by the State violate the constitutional guarantee enshrined to any person under Article 14 of the Constitution of India,” the Bench opined.
Therefore, the Court directed the State to register the petitioners and such other recipients for cadaveric transplant of organs without the condition of submitting a domicile certificate.
Source: Barandbench
