A doctor couple — which had been running an infertility treatment clinic for 25 years and moved the Bombay high court against the Maharashtra Medical Council (MMC)’s decision to suspend their licences for promising guaranteed pregnancy — received a setback on Friday as the court refused to grant them interim relief. The couple had even offered a full refund if the treatment failed.
Dr Aniruddha and Dr Anjali Malpani, who run an IVF clinic in south Mumbai, had approached the high court after the MMC had suspended their licence for three months. The applicants had requested the court to grant them interim relief and permit them to continue treatment of patients whose procedure had already started. The couple denied any “false claims or misleading patients.”
The division bench of Justice S.C. Dharmadhikari and Justice G.S. Kulkarni, however, observed that they were not experts and would not want to comment on such a “delicate and sensitive” issue. The bench observed that the couple could not play with the emotions of childless couples.
The decision to suspend the licence was taken after the ‘Advertising Standards Council of India’ had complained to it. The complaint was made after the couple on their official website had promised childless couples going for IVF treatment guaranteed pregnancy.
