Representative image | Photo credit: The Hindu
The Supreme Court has decided to examine whether blood banks should make nucleic acid test (NAT) mandatory for disease identification.
NAT is a highly sensitive molecular technique that detects the genetic material for viruses such as HIV, hepatitis B and hepatitis C in the blood.
Also read: What is ID-NAT?
A bench of Chief Justice of India Surya Kant and Justices Joymalya Bagchi and Vipul M. Pancholi asked advocate A. Velan, counsel for the petitioner, NGO Sarvesham Mangalam Foundation, about the cost-effectiveness of NAT compared to the more commonly used Enzyme-Linked Immunosorbent Assay (ELISA).
The Chief Justice asked if all states could afford NAT in government blood banks and hospitals.
Mr Velan said the costs were relatively low for NAT.
“Delhi can afford it. In states that are struggling to pay salaries to their workers or are unable to pay their electricity bills… would this be another financial burden for them?” Lavička asked.
The court asked petitioners to investigate whether state hospitals use NAT, if so, how many hospitals and in which states. The court asked the petitioner to submit an affidavit with this information and remanded the matter for further hearing on March 13.
The petitioner argued that the right to safe blood transfusion is a fundamental part of the right to life under Article 21 of the Constitution. In support of this plea, the lawsuit pointed to NAT as a safer testing mechanism to ensure the supply of safe and infectious blood to recipients.
“Preventable tragedies”
The petitioner drew attention to the case of thalassemia patients who needed frequent blood transfusions and were susceptible to transfusion of infected blood. The petition described such health mishaps as “preventable tragedies”.
“Thalassemia is an inherited blood disorder that is caused by the body’s inability to produce enough hemoglobin, a protein in red blood cells that transports oxygen from the lungs to the tissues and carbon dioxide to the lungs. India is the Thalassemia capital of the world, so there is a need to tighten blood safety procedures across the country,” not particularly the need for a standardized blood donation test.
The case assumes significance in the backdrop of a reported case of at least six children found to be HIV positive in Madhya Pradesh’s Satna, allegedly due to a contaminated blood transfusion at a district hospital during treatment for thalassemia in December 2025.
In October last year, the family of a seven-year-old thalassemia patient alleged that a local blood bank in Chaibas, the district headquarters of West Singhbhum town, had transfused HIV-infected blood. During an investigation by a five-member medical team from Ranchi a few days later, four more children were found to be HIV positive from a botched blood transfusion.
Published – 02 March 2026 21:52 IST
