New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Wednesday allowed a 13-year-old Mumbai rape survivor to terminate her 31-week-old pregnancy.
The bench comprising Chief Justice Dipak Misra and Justices Amitava Roy and AM Khanwilkar perused the medical report filed by a board of doctors of JJ hospital, set up by the court, and granted the nod for termination of pregnancy.
“Keeping in view the age of the victim, the trauma she faced, we allow her to terminate her pregnancy,” Chief Justice of India Dipak Misra said in his order.
The apex court passed the order while responding to a plea moved by the minor girl's mother who had sought its permission to terminate the pregnancy of her daughter.
During the previous hearing in the case, a bench comprising Justices SA Bobde and L Nageswara Rao had directed that a medical board would be constituted at Mumbai-based Sir JJ Group of Hospitals to examine the minor girl and ascertain the condition and advisability of permitting abortion.
Section 3(2)(b) of the Medical Termination of Pregnancy (MTP) Act prohibits abortion of a foetus after 20 weeks of pregnancy.
The minor girl's mother, through advocate Sneha Mukharjee, had filed a plea in the apex court seeking its nod to terminate the pregnancy of her daughter.
Earlier, on July 28, the top court had rejected a petition, on medical grounds, filed by another 10-year-old rape victim, who sought permission to terminate her 31-week-old pregnancy.
The minor girl had recently delivered a child in Chandigarh.
The court's order had come after taking note of a medical report that abortion would neither be good for the girl, nor for the foetus.