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"On clear reading of the provisions under Section 30 of the Act of 1994 as well as the provisions under Rules of 1996 make it clear that the Appropriate Authority is empowered to seize the documents, record, register, book, pamphlet, advertisement or any other material object found in the Genetic Clinic, Genetic Centre, or the General Laboratory. But on clear and bare reading of the provision under the Act as well as the rules it nowhere provides that the authority is empowered to seize the machinery/the machine used in the Genetic Clinic. If it is so, the authority is not empowered to seize the Ultra Sonography Machine under the provisions of Law. In the premise, the case of the petitioner is covered under the citation as the Rule given by the Principal Bench of this Court in Writ Petition No. 7973/2008 is applicable to the present case. In the premises, we set aside the order of the seizure of the ultra sonography machine and direct to return the seized ultra sonography machine to the petitioner."
Section 6 provides that no pre-natal diagnostic techniques including sonography can be conducted for the purpose of determining the sex of a foetus and that no person shall conduct or cause to be conducted any pre-natal diagnostic techniques including ultra sonography for the purpose of determining the sex of a foetus.
10. The Act came to be amended by Amendment Act 14 of 2003. The Statement of Objects and Reasons to the Amendment Act, inter alia, read as under :-

2. The pre-natal diagnostic techniques like amniocentesis and sonography are useful for the detection of genetic or chromosomal disorders or congenital malformations or sex linked disorders, etc. However, the amniocentesis and sonography are being used on a large scale to detect the sex of the foetus and to terminate the pregnancy of the unborn child, if found to be female.

(emphasis supplied)

24. A bare perusal of the aforesaid statutory provisions, both in the Act and in the Rules framed thereunder, makes it abundantly clear that an ultra sonography test on a pregnant woman is considered to be an important part of a pre-natal diagnostic test or pre-natal diagnostic procedure, which cannot be conducted except for the purpose of section 4(2). The person conducting ultra sonography on a pregnant woman has to maintain a complete record thereof in the manner prescribed in the Rules and a deficiency or inaccuracy in maintaining such records would amount to an offence, unless the person conducting such sonography is able to show that there was no deficiency or inaccuracy. The fact that section 3-B inserted by Amendment Act 14 of 2003 specifically prohibits even sale of an ultra sound machine or other machines capable of detecting sex of foetus to any genetic clinic or any other place or to any person not registered under the Act, itself should be sufficient to hold that in the scheme of the Act, Parliament has considered an ultrasound machine as a "material object" because it is capable of detecting sex of a foetus.