New Delhi, Feb. 24 -- Emphasising that a skewed sex ratio can have grave social consequences, including increased violence against women and trafficking, the Supreme Court on Monday called for a stern approach in dealing with female foeticide and violations of the Pre-Conception and Pre-Natal Diagnostic Techniques (Prohibition of Sex Selection) Act, 1994. "A skewed sex ratio is likely to lead to greater incidences of violence against women and increase in practices of trafficking, bride-buying etc. It is an effort to save the girl child," a bench of justices Manoj Misra and Ujjal Bhuyan said. The judgment, authored by justice Bhuyan, underlined that the focus of the PCPNDT Act is to protect the right to life of the girl child under Article 21 of the Constitution. Lamenting that discrimination against the girl child, and by extension, women, remains prevalent in several parts of the country, the bench said female foeticide is a "crude and ugly manifestation" of this social malaise. "The first step towards commission of such an offence is in the sex determination of the foetus," noted the court, explaining that Parliament stepped in to outlaw not just sex determination and sex selection, but also to regulate all related preconception and prenatal diagnostic techniques. The legislation makes it mandatory for clinics and practitioners to maintain records in the prescribed format. "Non-maintenance of the record in the prescribed form would be an offence under the PCPNDT Act and the rules," it stressed. Describing the law as a social welfare legislation enacted against the backdrop of India's declining sex ratio, the bench noted that it was conceived to arrest the demographic imbalance and prevent its cascading consequences. The judgment came while dismissing a plea filed by a Haryana-based radiologist seeking quashing of criminal proceedings initiated against him for alleged violations of the PCPNDT Act and the rules framed under it....