The Madras High Court and a law officer rushed to the rescue of a 27-year-old renal failure patient on Thursday, taking expeditious steps to ensure that his request for kidney transplantation gets heard by the Authorisation Committee, under the Transplantation of Human Organs Act of 1994, on Friday.
Justice S.M. Subramaniam ordered that the committee should hear the donor and the recipient in person, scrutinise the documents, take a decision in accordance with law with respect to granting permission for the transplantation and communicate it to the recipient by 7 p.m. on Friday.
The judge requested Additional Advocate General J. Ravindran to communicate the court order to the authorisation committee, functioning under the Directorate of Medical Education, over phone and also through electronic modes of communication so that the directions get complied with, in letter and spirit.
The orders were passed while disposing of a joint writ petition filed by the recipient and the identified donor, seeking a direction to the authorisation committee to consider a representation made on April 1 and grant approval, on priority, for the kidney transplantation at a private hospital in Coimbatore.
As per medical records, the youngster from Coonoor in the Nilgiris district, was suffering from end stage renal failure. He was suffering from heavy pain due to prolonged dialysis, which he had to undergo thrice a week. Doctors had strongly recommended surgical extraction and transplantation of a new kidney.
He identified a woman, a non-relative, who was willing to donate her kidney. However, their request was pending with the committee for over a month and hence they had jointly moved the High Court during summer vacation court sitting, seeking an emergent direction to consider their plea at the earliest.
When the matter was heard on Thursday, the AAG took a few hours time from the court and reverted back to State that all arrangements had been made for the Authorisation Committee to convene on Friday afternoon. The writ petitioners could appear before the committee along with an attender and all relevant documents, he said. Appreciating the efforts, the judge ordered that the decision of the committee could also be declared on the same day.
