NEW DELHI: In a rare instance,
Supreme Court
on Monday recalled its April 22 order, passed in exercise of its omnibus powers under
Article 142
of the Constitution to do complete justice, allowing termination of a 14-year-old girl’s
31-week pregnancy
caused by alleged sexual assault.
A bench headed by CJI D Y Chandrachud, on a petition filed by the minor’s mother, had asked the dean of Lokmanya Tilak Municipal General Hospital and Medical College, Sion, to carry out the
MTP
after it perused a medical board’s report suggesting that though termination of an advanced pregnancy was risky, carrying on with the pregnancy to its full term may have a deleterious impact on the minor’s mental and physical health.
After the court passed the order setting the stage for MTP, the girl’s mother vacillated between termination of a fully grown foetus or allowing her minor daughter to deliver a baby which would be put up for adoption. She wanted assurance that MTP would not harm her daughter in any manner. But doctors explained the complications involved in terminating an advanced pregnancy.
Finding the petitioner indecisive, the doctors wrote back to the SC and additional solicitor general
Aishwarya
Bhati, specifically requested by the SC to assist in the matter by consulting everyone involved, explained the difficult situation faced by the doctors in terminating a pregnancy which had advanced to 32 weeks.
Recognising the dilemma, the bench decided to have a video conference with the girl’s parents, doctors tasked with doing the MTP, counsel for the mother and Bhati. After a detailed discussion that lasted over an hour, the bench agreed with the parents on taking the pregnancy to its full term.
It recalled its April 22 order and ordered that Maharashtra govt would support the girl and her family in carrying on with the pregnancy to its full term and render all healthcare assistance to her. The CJI-led bench also ordered that if at any later stage, after the minor gave birth, the family wanted to give up the baby for adoption, the state govt would facilitate the process.
Interestingly, Bombay high court had rejected the girl’s mother’s plea for MTP, citing the
Medical Termination of Pregnancy Act
provision that fixed 24 weeks as the outer limit for pregnancy termination.
SC had ordered a fresh examination of the girl by a medical board on the ground that the medical report relied upon by the HC did not consider “impact of pregnancy on physical and emotional well-being of the minor”.
