Telangana High Court on Tuesday directed the state government and the superintendent of Gandhi Hospital in Hyderabad to immediately constitute a medical board to look into a request for medical termination of a rape victim’s 21-week pregnancy and inform the court of its opinion within a week.
Justice K Sarath gave the order while hearing a petition filed by the NGO Prajwala seeking a court direction for immediate and comprehensive tests to be conducted on the 17-year-old rape victim.
The NGO sought examinations by a qualified surgeon, gynaecologist, and obstetrician, in the presence of a qualified physician to formulate an opinion under the Medical Termination of Pregnancy (MTP) Act 1971. Seeking termination of the pregnancy at the earliest, the NGO said continuation of pregnancy posed a grave risk to the girl’s health.
It was submitted that the girl was rescued from a brothel and admitted to Prajwala’s home for such victims for rehabilitation on the orders of a court and that during a routine medical checkup, it came to light that she was pregnant. The NGO also stated that the girl wants to end the pregnancy and doesn’t want to carry it to term.
Senior advocate Deepak Misra, appearing on behalf of Prajwala, argued that forcing a minor victim of sexual exploitation and trafficking to continue a pregnancy would severely harm her mental health, as per the MTP Act. He stressed that the minor is legally entitled to seek termination of her pregnancy if it poses a serious risk to her physical and mental well-being.
“Under section 3 of the MTP Act, pregnancy can be terminated upto 20 weeks of pregnancy and above 20 weeks, there should be a medical board which should examine and give consent. And section 6 of the MTP Act states that if the person is a minor, sex worker or rape victim, then they can go for termination even after 20 weeks,” the senior advocate said.
He further argued that the minor victim is entitled to seek termination if it causes grave injury to her physical and mental health.
