3 min readNew DelhiMay 1, 2023 08:18 PM IST
First published on: May 1, 2023 at 08:18 PM IST
While allowing a 14-year old girl to approach Lok Nayak Jai Prakash (LNJP) Hospital to terminate her pregnancy, the Delhi High Court Monday directed that the registered medical practitioner shall not disclose her identity in this process.
A single-judge bench of Justice Prathiba Singh said the girl, whose pregnancy was at the 11-week gestational period, is free to approach LNJP hospital. It further directed that the “report shall be lodged by the registered medical practitioner concerned without disclosing the minor’s identity or identity of family or contact details”. The court noted that the girl’s pregnancy was within the prescribed period under the Medical Termination of Pregnancy Act.
The High Court was hearing the plea of a minor girl filed through her mother, praying that she be allowed to undergo medical termination of pregnancy and that her details be masked and not disclosed so as to not compromise her interest. “The SHO concerned shall also not disclose the same during the process of investigation,” Justice Singh ordered.
The direction was passed in view of the Supreme Court’s judgment in ‘X v Principal Secretary Health and Family Welfare Dept, Govt of NCT of Delhi & Anr.’, wherein registered medical practitioners have been exempted from mandatorily reporting offences of “consensual sexual activity” under the POCSO Act.
The minor girl’s counsel submitted that the pregnancy arose from a consensual relationship and she wished to terminate it. He submitted that no registered medical practitioner was willing to undertake the termination in view of the fact that the girl was seeking masking of her identity.
In January, the HC had directed the Delhi government to issue a circular stating that the identity of a minor girl seeking medical termination of pregnancy or her family shall not be disclosed in the report of the registered medical practitioner to the police.
The direction had come in a plea moved by the mother of a 14-year old minor girl seeking medical termination of her daughter’s pregnancy without reporting the matter to the local police as mandated under the POCSO Act as it would lead to social stigma, ostracisation and harassment.
The plea had claimed that the girl, who was 15 weeks 4 days pregnant as on January 6, 2023, was in a consensual relationship with a minor boy and did not want to continue the pregnancy as she was not physically and mentally prepared to raise the child. The HC had in January directed that her pregnancy be terminated at AIIMS.
Section 19(1) of POCSO Act calls for mandatory reporting of child sexual offences to the Special Juvenile Police Unit or the local police.
A single-judge bench of Justice Prathiba Singh said the girl, whose pregnancy was at the 11-week gestational period, is free to approach LNJP hospital. (File) 
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