The Chief Justice was addressing a state-level seminar organised by Punjab State Legal Services Authority in collaboration with NGOs on “Female Foeticide and Drugs” at the Grain Market in Khanna today.

The Chief Justice exhorted the elite class of the society to come forward and shoulder the responsibility to educate the people against the social evils, so that a mass movement against the female feticide could be created.

Justice Jain lamented that the situation in Punjab and Haryana with regard to sex ratio was the worst in the country and stressed that mindset of the people favouring male child was required to be completely changed. He said that in Punjab, the sex ratio had declined to 877 females for 1,000 males. He said that it was the right time to launch an effective and concerted drive on both educative and punitive fronts involving the NGOs, government agencies, people’s representatives and educational institutions.

The Chief Justice said it was unfortunate that the modern advancements in the diagnostic and for treatment of different diseases were being misused by people, mainly unscrupulous greedy elite class, to kill the unborn girls, adding that without strong evidence they could not be punished by the courts. Justice Jain said that the state of Punjab was known as the land of saints and gurus devoted to the social and human cause in the country and it was most painful to see that state was ahead in the criminal act of murdering the girls before birth.

The Chief Justice said our Gurus and saints and holy granths had taught us to accord respect to the women and the religious heads of all the sections had also issued appeals to totally denounce female foeticide in the society.

Addressing the function, Justice K S Grewal, Justice Punjab and Haryana High Court and Chairman Legal Service Committee of High Court, said that declining sex ratio in the state of Punjab was a matter of serious concern and it should be tackled by creating a mass awareness up to the village level.

Speaking on this occasion, Justice Uma Nath Singh, Judge, Punjab and Haryana High Court, said that the women should be given suitable opportunities of education so that they could play an important role in curbing social evils.

A number of Judges of Punjab and Haryana High Court including Justice Rajiv Bhalla, Justice Surya Kant, justice M M S Bedi, Justice Mohinder Pal, Justice Harbans Lal, Justice S. S Gupta, Justice K C Puri, Justice R K Garg, Justice R K Jain, Justice K S Ahluwalia and Justice Jaswant Singh also participated in the seminar.

District and Session Judge G K Rai proposed a vote of thanks. Mangal Dhillon, a renowned film artist, Dr Rashmi Garg, Dr Rekha Bhardwaj, Principal, A S College for Women Khanna and Dr Bagga of Hoshiarpur also addressed the seminar.