SC issues notice on PIL against guidelines curbing transgenders, female sex workers, gay men from donating blood

New Delhi | The Supreme Court on Friday agreed to examine a public interest litigation (PIL) challenging the guidelines issued by the National Blood Transfusion Council (NBTC) and National Aids Control Organisation (NACO), imposing a blanket restriction on transgender persons, female sex workers, and gay men from donating blood.

Issuing notice, a bench, headed by CJI D.Y. Chandrachud, directed the listing of the plea with a similar pending matter.

The plea, filed through advocate Ibad Mushtaq, said that the blanket prohibition provided under the 2017 Guidelines on Blood Donor Selection and Blood Donor Referral issued by the NBTC and NACO is a violation of the right to equality, dignity and life protected under Articles 14, 15, 17 and 21 of the Constitution.

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"The impugned guidelines themselves are based on a highly prejudicial and presumptive view taken with regard to gay men in the 1980s in the United States of America and have since been revisited by majority of countries, including the United States of America, the United Kingdom, Israel and Canada, amongst others, the governments of which have come out with revised guidelines for blood donors which do not impose a blanket restriction on gay men or gender queer persons from donating blood," it said.

The PIL said that a blanket restriction on blood donation is based on an assumption that a particular group of persons may be suffering from sexually transmitted diseases, however, screening of blood donors is conducted for every donation before a possible transfusion and in an era, where medical technology and education, especially in the field of haematology has progressed by leaps and bounds, a blanket prohibition emanating from a highly discriminatory view of gay persons, does not stand to reason.

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