KATHMANDU, September 2: The Supreme Court has issued a mandamus, allowing the donation of a kidney by a father-in-law to a daughter-in-law.
Prior to this, there was no such provision in the country's law related to human organ transplant. The Sahid Dharma Bhakta Human Organ Transplant Centre, Bhaktapur had, three weeks ago, suspended in the last hour the process for kidney transplantation on Geeta Bhandari of Bhadrapur Municipality-10, Jhapa after both her kidneys had failed, citing the lack of legal provisions allowing the father-in-law to donate a kidney to his daughter-in-law (nephew's spouse).
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Geeta's husband's younger uncle, Netra Prasad Bhandari, had consented to donate his kidney to her. The process for kidney transplantation was forwarded following this. The final medical test report of Netra Prasad also mentioned that his kidney was compatible for the transplantation.
However, the Centre had refused to carry out the kidney transplantation, citing legal obstacles. Geeta had filed a writ petition asking for the provisions allowing her husband's uncle to donate his kidney to her after she was denied this kidney transplantation process by the Centre.
The apex court on Sunday delivered a mandamus in this regard almost a month after the filing of the petition. A joint bench of justices Deepak Kumar Karki and Kumar Chundal ruled in the case. With this, now Netra Prasad can donate his kidney to Geeta, setting a precedent while nullifying the Centre’s earlier decision in the case, said advocate Tikaram Bhattarai, who pleaded the case on behalf of Geeta.
