New Delhi: On Wednesday, the Supreme Court directed the Centre to create a national policy and uniform regulations in collaboration with the States to ensure a transparent and effective system for organ donation and allocation. A bench led by Chief Justice BR Gavai and Justice K Vinod Chandran issued these directions in response to a public interest litigation filed by the Indian Society of Organ Transplantation. The Chief Justice urged the Centre to encourage Andhra Pradesh to implement the 2011 amendments to the Transplantation of Human Organs Act, 1994.
Additionally, the bench instructed states like Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, and Manipur, which have yet to adopt the Transplantation of Human Organs and Tissues Rules, 2014, to do so promptly, emphasizing the critical nature of the matter. The bench called for the development of a national policy that includes ‘model allocation criteria’ for organ transplants, aiming to address gender and caste biases while establishing uniform donor criteria nationwide to eliminate state-level disparities. It noted that states such as Manipur, Nagaland, Andaman and Nicobar, and Lakshadweep do not have a State Organ and Tissue Transplant Organisation (SOTO) and instructed the Centre to set up these organizations under the National Organ Transplantation Programme after consulting the respective states.
To protect live donors from ‘exploitation’, the bench requested the Centre to formulate guidelines ensuring the welfare of live donors, guaranteeing their care after donation, and preventing their commercialization and exploitation.