'Wishing The Best' To Minor Gang-Rape Survivor, Calcutta High Court Allows Termination Of 25+ Weeks Pregnancy

On an earlier occasion, the Court had noted that the present case fell under the exception envisaged under the 1971 Act, wherein there could be a risk to the life of the mother in case the pregnancy was allowed to continue, and had directed the formation of a medical board to assess the viability of abortion for the minor girl who was 25+ weeks pregnant.

Upon perusing the report of the medical board, a single bench of Justice Sabyasachi Bhattacharya held:

The crux of the said report is that considering the circumstances and the physical and mental conditions of the patient, the Board Members have arrived at a decision that pregnancy should be terminated, but for the safety of the patient and to mitigate any complication, it should preferably be done at a higher centre than the one where the survivor is now located. Since an extremely fair stand has been taken by the respondent nos. 7 and 8, the respondent nos. 7 and 8 are directed to ensure that the survivor, whose pregnancy is to be terminated medically, is brought to the SSKM Hospital at Kolkata, taking due care that the said survivor is attended to medically during such transit.

'Wishing the best to the minor child', the Court ordered a team of Doctors shall carry out the procedure at the earliest, taking due care of all formalities as envisaged in law.

"Whereas motherhood could have come as a matter of choice much later in life, it was imposed on our little protagonist as a slur and not a blessing," the Court had earlier observed in the case.

Case: Sri X v State of West Bengal & ors

Coram: Justice Sabyasachi Bhattacharya

Citation: 2023 LiveLaw (Cal) 231

Click Here To Read/Download Judgement