New Delhi, March 5 (IANS) The Delhi High Court Wednesday asked a social activist, who had filed a public interest litigation (PIL) asking for exemption of dialysis kits from customs duty and making the process of kidney transplants easier, to file a fresh petition as the present one was not focussed. In his petition that was filed last month, Rahul Verma said central and state governments should exempt dialysis kits from customs duties and taxes. This was the main reason why people opted for illegal kidney transplants, he said.

He also demanded that the government initiate a programme for donation of organs on the lines of eye donation camps and review the 1994 Human Organ Transplantation Act.

A division bench headed by judges M.K. Sharma and Reva Khetrapal asked Verma to file a fresh petition as the present appeal deals with various health issues that are not related to kidney transplants.

“We appreciate your initiative of filing a PIL in the wake of the kidney racket, which came to light last month. But our suggestion to you would be to focus only on the relevant issues and make the petition simpler,” the bench said.

“I will be filing the fresh petition soon,” Verma told IANS.

“I underwent mental trauma when my son was born two years ago and suffered from kidney malfunction. I realised how difficult it is to pay for his expensive treatment. So I thought of moving a PIL seeking a more transparent kidney transplant process,” he said.

On Jan 24, police unearthed an illegal kidney transplant racket being operated from Haryana’s Gurgaon town, on the outskirts of the national capital. The people running the racket served clients from India and abroad after obtaining kidneys illegally, often under force, from poor people.