1. That Gurpreet Kaur was the daughter of a retired Indian Army personnel Col. Vijaypatsinh Batra. Her family consists of two girls and one boy along with her parents.
2. That Gurpreet Kaur completed her B.Sc. with first class and wanted to pursue her masters. However, the elders of the family were not in favour of her continuing her education because of the customs prevailing in their community. The menace of dowry was rampant in their community. The belief of the elders was that if Gurpreet Kaur pursued her masters, her advancing age would be a hindrance to finding a suitable match, and if she was very highly qualified, they would have to find a more qualified husband for her resulting in more dowry required to be paid. Gurpreet Kaur had no option but to accept the hardcore reality of life that despite prohibitive laws dowry is still rampant in their community.
2. That Gurpreet Kaur was then married to Yuvrajsinh Khtirana, the son of an affluent businessman, who owns a big toy factory. Col. Batra had to spend more than 25 lakhs on this wedding.
3. That four months of her marriage, her mother was diagnosed with Leukaemia. The treatment involved expensive medicines and chemotherapy. Since Col. Batra was not left with enough money after spending a huge amount on the wedding of Gurpreet Kaur, Mrs. Batra was treated in adequate facilities for such treatment and therefore could not be cured. Her younger sister, despite being of a marriageable age, was unable to get married due to the inability of Col. Batra to pay. The youngest brother, Harbhajan was a brilliant student and was eligible to get admission in medicine which he had always dreamt about, he had to opt for a homeopathy course due to financial constraints.
4. That Gurpreet Kaur often cursed herself as she was of the opinion that she was solely responsible for her family miserable financial condition.
5. That after a few months later Gurpreet Kaur delivered a baby girl who was named Khushi. She and her husband were very excited at the new arrival in the family but her mother-in-law was not so happy. She often said that in their entire family only male children had been born and Gurpreet had broken the tradition of the Khurana family.
6. That After 21/2years, Gurpreet Kaur delivered another female child and found a marked change in
the attitude in her husband also. Both her mother-in-law and husband along with other family members frequently heaped taunts and insults on her.
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7. That the life of Gurpreet Kaur turned sour. Abuse from the in-laws and even her husband became a routine. There were occasions of physical abuse too.
8. That the business tension of Yuvrajsinh made him an alcoholic and physical abuse became a daily routine for Gurpreet Kaur due to her fault that she could not deliver a male child to continue the legacy of the Khurana family.
9. That Gurpreet Kaur became pregnant for the third time. She was already under tremendous pressure due to the poor financial condition of her parents and was now worried about the deteriorating financial condition of her husband. Her mother-in-law had given her an ultimatum that she had to deliver a male child or else she would be thrown out of the house. She could overhear the conspiratorial whispers between her mother-in-law and father-in-law that if she delivers a third female child, they would throw her out of the house and would seriously consider the remarriage of Yuvrajsinh. Therefore Gurpreet Kaur was mortally scared of delivering a third female child as she was sure that neither she nor her female children would be accepted by her husband and in-laws. 10. That Dr. Nalini, gynaecologist and school classmate and a strong crusader of the „Save the girl child campaign‟, informed Gurpreet Kaur that termination of pregnancy on the ground of the gender of the foetus is now an offence under the Pre Natal Diagnostic Techniques (Regulation and Prevention of Misuse) Act, 1994, in short the PNDT Act, when she during her routine check-up with the gynecologist pleaded that she would not deliver a third female child to save her life and family. 11. That looking at the pitiable condition of Gurpreet Kaur, Dr. Nalini, like any human being who has the slightest sensitivity towards another human being, agreed to conduct a sex-determination test. She had a portable ultrasound machine in her clinic and called Gurpreet Kaur to her clinic after the regular OPD hours for sex determination of the foetus and after performing the necessary tests she inform Gurpreet Kaur about the gender of the child.
12. That Ms. Soma one of the staff members of Dr. Nalini's clinic heard the conversation informed the local police. But they did not take any action due to which she instead of going before the Superintendent of Police filed a complaint before the Judicial Magistrate First Class who issued summons against Dr.Nalini and Gurpreet Kaur
13. That both Dr. Nalini and Gurpreet Kaur approached the Punjab & Haryana High Court against the issuance of summons. Dr. Nalini approached the High Court for quashing of the complaint under Section 482 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973 and Gurpreet Kaur filed a separate writ petition alleging violation of her fundamental right and the Constitutional validity of the PNDT Act was also challenged by Gurpreet Kaur in the said petition and claimed that it is the right of the mother to decide whether she wants to be the mother of the child that she is carrying.
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14. That in the same time due to the publicity of the case Rekha Dutt, a journalist in a reputed national daily newspaper and also a member of a women‟s organization called 21st Century Women‟s Rights Organization, discussed that what they could do for women, which could also bring them name and fame apart from improving the conditions of women.
15. That on support of this Ms. Dutt published an article titled, „Right of Mother v/s Right of Unborn‟ which was received well by the readers and a section of the people started voicing their opinion about allowing prospective mothers to go in for pre-natal sex determination to avoid making their life miserable in their matrimonial home.
16. That the said organization also filed a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) on the same issue under Article 32 of the Constitution of India before the Supreme Court.
17. Dr. Nalini and Gurpreet Kaur also moved before the Supreme Court under Article l39A of the Constitution to transfer both the matters before the Punjab & Haryana High Court to itself and the Supreme Court under Article 139A of the Constitution of India transferred both the matters to the Constitutional Bench due to the issues involved questions of Constitutional importance and same questions of law.
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