New Delhi, February 25 The Supreme Court on Wednesday sought more details, including costs and availability, regarding the conduct of Nucleic Acid Amplification Testing (NAT) in government hospitals across the country to detect transfusion-transmissible infections such as HIV and hepatitis.
A bench comprising Chief Justice Surya Kant and justices Joymalya Bagchi and Vipul M Pancholi asked lawyer A Velan, representing the Public Interest Litigation (PIL) petitioner ‘Sarvesham Mangalam Foundation’, to provide details on the cost of conducting NAT tests and whether the facility was available in government hospitals, so that the poor could also access it.
The foundation has made the union ministry of Health and Family Welfare, as well as all the states and Union Territories, parties to the plea.
The PIL sought an order directing the Centre and the states to declare that the "Right to Safe Blood" is an intrinsic part of the Right to Life under Article 21 of the Constitution.
It also sought directions to "implement mandatory NAT in all blood banks across India for the detection of transfusion-transmissible infections (TTIs), including Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV), hepatitis C Virus (HCV), hepatitis B Virus (HBV), malaria, and syphilis, in the blood collected from all donors, to ensure the supply of safe and infection-free blood to all recipients."
The Delhi-based NGO highlighted a "systemic and ongoing failure" of the state to protect vulnerable patients, particularly those with thalassemia, from life-threatening TTIs such as HIV, hepatitis B, and hepatitis C. Thalassemia is a genetic blood disorder requiring patients to undergo blood transfusions every 15 to 20 days for survival.
However, the petition stated that for thousands in India, these transfusions have become a "gamble with death."
“Thalassemia is an inherited blood disorder caused by the body's inability to produce enough haemoglobin, the protein in red blood cells that transports oxygen from the lungs to the tissues and carbon dioxide to the lungs. As India is the thalassemia capital of the world, there is a need to strengthen blood safety practices across the country, particularly the need for a standardised test to screen blood donations,” it said.
The PIL cited a string of recent "preventable tragedies" across the country and said that in Madhya Pradesh, at least six thalassemia children tested HIV-positive after transfusions at the Satna District Hospital in 2025.
In Jharkhand, five children were infected with HIV following transfusions at the Sadar Hospital, Chaibasa, in 2025, it said, adding that in Uttar Pradesh, 14 children contracted hepatitis and HIV at a medical college in 2023.