Woman asks to terminate 22-week pregnancy as she wants divorce, Delhi HC seeks medical report
The court notes that the Supreme Court had included domestic violence cases under medical termination pregnancy rules, wherein a woman is permitted to terminate her pregnancy up to 24 weeks on the ground of change of marital status.
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The court further asked the woman to add her husband as a party to her petition and directed that a notice be issued to him. The plea was listed for hearing next on Thursday. (File) The Delhi High Court on Monday directed the All India Institute of Medical Sciences to immediately constitute a medical board to examine a woman who sought the medical termination of her 22-week pregnancy after she decided to separate from and divorce her husband.
A single-judge bench of Justice Subramonium Prasad observed that a medical board’s opinion would be necessary for considering whether it would be safe for the woman to undergo the pregnancy termination procedure by a registered medical practitioner and to ascertain the conditions of the foetus.
Issuing notice to the Centre and the Delhi government, the court directed that the report of the medical board be sent to the court within 48 hours from Monday.
The petitioner, a 31-year-old woman, got married on May 11 and started living with her husband and father-in-law. On June 21 she found out that she was five weeks and six days pregnant. The woman said that right from the beginning of her marriage, she was being “tortured, abused verbally, physically, mentally and emotionally by her husband at her matrimonial home”. She said she left for her parents’ home after her husband physically assaulted her on July 7 and on August 10, when she was three months pregnant.
The woman stated that she had decided to separate from her husband and get a divorce and therefore did not want to continue with her pregnancy.
The court noted that the woman had filed neither an FIR against her husband, nor a petition for divorce or judicial separation from him. She has not approached any court under the Domestic Violence Act either, it further said.
Justice Prasad, however, said the apex court last year ruled in X v. Principal Secretary, Health and Family Welfare Department, Govt. of NCT of Delhi and Another that it is the prerogative of each woman to “evaluate her life and arrive at the best course of action in view of the change in material circumstance”.
The court noted that the apex court had included domestic violence cases under Medical Termination Pregnancy Rules, wherein a woman is permitted to terminate her pregnancy up to 24 weeks on the ground of change of marital status during the ongoing pregnancy.
“The apex court has held that the consequences of an unwanted pregnancy on a woman’s body as well as her mind cannot be understated and, therefore, the decision to carry the pregnancy to its full term or terminate it is firmly rooted in the right to bodily autonomy and decisional autonomy of the pregnant woman,” Justice Prasad underscored.
The court further asked the woman to add her husband as a party to her petition and directed that a notice be issued to him. The plea was listed for hearing next on Thursday.
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