CHAPTER V - APPROPRIATE AUTHORITY AND ADVISORY COMMITTEE 

Appropriate Authority and Advisory Committee.-

(1) The Central Government shall appoint, by notification in the Official Gazette, one or more Appropriate Authorities for each of the Union territories for the purposes of this Act.

(2) The State Government shall appoint, by notification in the Official Gazette, one or more Appropriate Authorities for the whole or part of the State for the purposes of this Act having regard to the intensity of the problem of pre-natal sex determination leading to female foeticide.

(3) The officers appointed as Appropriate Authorities under sub- section (1) or sub-section (2) shall be,--

          (a)   when appointed for the whole of the State or the Union territory, of or above the rank of the Joint Director of Health and Family Welfare; and

         (b)    when appointed for any part of the State or the Union territory, of such other rank as the State Government or the Central Government, as the case may be, may deem fit.

 (4) The Appropriate Authority shall have the following functions, namely:--

            (a)  to grant, suspend or cancel registration of a Genetic Counselling Centre, Genetic Laboratory or Genetic Clinic;

           (b)  to enforce standards prescribed for the Genetic Counselling Centre, Genetic Laboratory and Genetic Clinic;

           (c)   to investigate complaints of breach of the provisions of this Act or the rules made thereunder and take immediate action; and

           (d)   to seek and consider the advice of the Advisory Committee, constituted under sub-section (5), on application for registration and on complaints for suspension or cancellation of registration.

 (5) The Central Government or the State Government, as the case may be, shall constitute an Advisory Committee for each Appropriate Authority to aid and advise the Appropriate Authority in the discharge of its functions, and shall appoint one of the members of the Advisory Committee to be its Chairman.

(6) The Advisory Committee shall consist of—

       (a)  three medical experts from amongst gynaecologists, obstericians, paediatricians and medical geneticists;

        (b)  one legal expert;

        (c)   one officer to represent the department dealing with information and publicity of the State Government or the Union territory, as the case may be;

        (d)   three eminent social workers of whom not less than one shall be from amongst representatives of women's organisations.

 (7) No person who, in the opinion of the Central Government or the State Government, as the case may be, has been associated with the use or promotion of pre-natal diagnostic technique for determination of sex shall be appointed as a member of the Advisory Committee.

(8) The Advisory Committee may meet as and when it thinks fit or on the request of the Appropriate Authority for consideration of any application for registration or any complaint for suspension or cancellation of registration and to give advice thereon:

     Provided that the period intervening between any two meetings shall not exceed the prescribed period.

(9) The terms and conditions subject to which a person may be appointed to the Advisory Committee and the procedure to be followed by such Committee in the discharge of its functions shall be such as may be prescribed.