New Delhi: The Punjab and Haryana High Court has allowed a married woman, a survivor of alleged marital rape, to terminate her 15-week pregnancy on the ground that the child, if born, would be a “reminder of trauma and agony” that she had to undergo.
“Life is not just about being able to breathe rather it is about being able to live with dignity,” observed Justice Vinod S. Bhardwaj, adding that it was more “prudent” to allow the termination. He directed the Civil Hospital in Amritsar to take the appropriate steps needed to carry out the medical procedure.
The court felt that the child would also be likely to live a “tormenting life” or “a life with no dignity”, if born. As a result, both child and mother would have to face social stigma and incarceration for the rest of their lives, the bench said.
The high court was hearing the case of a woman, who had approached the court after the hospital had declined to carry out the termination procedure without a court order.
On 6 May, the court had directed the petitioner to appear before a medical board for an examination. The medical report submitted to the court advised immediate termination of pregnancy to avoid any further complications.
The order closely follows a September 2022 Supreme Court judgment that allowed survivors of marital rape to seek abortion of the unwanted pregnancy by bringing them at par with other rape survivors. Through this judgment, the SC had held that the 24-week limit for abortion applies to unmarried women as well as married women, who conceive as a result of sexual assault by the husband.
Before this verdict, the Medical Termination of Pregnancy (MTP) Act allowed only certain categories of women to terminate their pregnancies within 20 to 24 weeks of conception.
However, the rules provided for an exception to permit women to abort their foetus after 20 weeks. These exceptions include the cases of change of marital status during an ongoing pregnancy, sexual assault, rape or incest. The September 2022 ruling widened the ambit of the exception clause to include survivors of marital rape.
Justice Bharadwaj took note of the atrocities inflicted on the woman and the fact that she was threatened and coerced to marry her husband. After marriage, she was subjected to mental and physical cruelty, with several alleged instances of sexual assault by the husband. She was also forbidden from contacting her family members, and when she would attempt to, her husband would subject her to physical abuse.
The woman escaped her matrimonial home and reached her parents’ home in Amritsar on 16 April. It was noted in the order that the woman was under “great mental trauma”, and was, therefore, unable to disclose everything that had happened to her to her parents.
The court was told about the divorce petition filed by the woman in which she had detailed the ordeal she underwent in her married life. A police report filed against the husband was also taken note of, even though action on the same is yet to be taken.
Uttkarsh Mishra is a law student at NALSAR and an intern with ThePrint.
(Edited by Mannat Chugh)
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