The Supreme Court has issued notices to the Centre, all states, and Union Territories in response to a petition seeking the nationwide notification of cancer as a notifiable disease, signalling judicial concern over India’s fragmented and inadequate cancer surveillance system. The bench, led by Chief Justice Surya Kant, said it was deeply troubled by the severe gaps in public health monitoring, noting that nearly 90% of India’s population remains outside any structured cancer surveillance mechanism.
The petition, filed by retired AIIMS cancer specialist Dr Anurag Srivastava, argues that the absence of nationwide mandatory reporting has created a dangerous patchwork. At present, only 17 out of 36 states and UTs have independently declared cancer a notifiable disease under their public health statutes. This inconsistency leaves vast regions without mandatory case reporting, undermining national efforts to track and manage the disease burden.
Advocate Gaurav Kumar Bansal, appearing for the petitioner, highlighted the systemic implications of this failure. Because cancer is not uniformly notifiable, the National Cancer Registry Programme (NCRP) can capture reliable data from only around 10% of the population. This creates a massive nationwide data gap: almost 90% of Indians remain outside any systematic collection, severely limiting the government’s ability to estimate true incidence, plan screening programmes, allocate resources, or evaluate outcomes.
The petition argues that this information vacuum results in chronic underestimation of India’s cancer burden, flawed policy planning, and poorly targeted health interventions. It also weakens early detection strategies, especially in rural and underserved areas where late-stage diagnoses remain common.
The plea further addresses the parallel public health risk posed by widespread misinformation. It cites unscientific claims—such as the promotion of cow urine as a cancer cure—that continue to circulate unchecked. An RTI response from the National Institute of Ayurveda confirmed that no research supports such claims. Without a nationwide reporting system, the petition notes, the impact of such misinformation remains poorly documented, as many patients arrive at formal medical facilities only in advanced and often untreatable stages.
The PIL seeks sweeping directions from the Supreme Court: mandating that cancer be declared a notifiable disease across India; strengthening surveillance; improving data reliability; and enabling a unified national cancer control strategy. The court has now asked the Centre, states, and UTs to file formal responses, setting the stage for a potentially significant public health intervention.
