MADURAI: The Madurai Bench of Madras High Court refused to allow termination of pregnancy of 12-year-old girl after the medical experts opined that aborting the fetus at this stage may pose threat to the girl’s life.
A division bench comprising Justices R Subbiah and B Pugalendhi pointed out that as per the report of the medical experts, the gestation period of the victim had crossed 30 weeks and therefore, it is not desirable to terminate the pregnancy as it would result in harm to the minor victim girl.
“When the competent medical professionals have, after examination of the minor girl, rendered an opinion that it is unsafe to terminate the pregnancy, we cannot either ignore such an opinion and substitute our opinion and issue a direction for termination of pregnancy,” the Judges stated.
They further directed the State Home Secretary to pay `5 lakh as compensation to the minor, under Victims Compensation Act within four weeks and asked govt to bear hospitalisation expenses of victim until delivery.
Speaking to Express, the girl’s mother said, “We were given hope that the foetus could be terminated. Recently, the foetus of a 11-year-old girl was terminated successfully at GRH. It is a torture to watch our daughter in pain at this tender age.
We have been failed by the judicial system through its delay, despite admitting her at GRH on October 30 and case filed on Nov 3. Facing social disgrace, we are now left with no option than to kill ourselves.”