A bench of justices K S Radhakrishnan and Dipak Misra also directed the officials of Haryana, Rajasthan, Bihar and Maharashtra to be present in the court with statistics explaining action taken under the Pre-Conception and Pre-natal Diagnostic Techniques Act 1994.
Expressing concern over the drastic drop in girl child ratio in these states, the bench issued notice to them and sought response from them and posted the matter for further hearing on February 12.
The average count of girl child (0-6 years) in the country has dropped to 914 per 1000 boys as per the Census 2011 which was earlier 927 under the 2001 Census.
The court was hearing a PIL by NGO Voluntary Health Association of Punjab pleading it to interfere in the matter in view of decreasing number of girls/boys ratio in the country.
The petitioner alleged that three other states -- Jammu and Kashmir, Uttarakhand and Madhya Pradesh -- too fared badly on the Census list. But the court did not issue notice to them as of now.
Additional Solicitor General Indira Jaising informed the court that it was the state which has to implement the act and they should be asked to respond on the issue.