New Delhi: In queue at the Rajasthan High Court one fine morning last month to argue a matter that was soon going to be called out, lawyer Shreyansh Mardia was engrossed in reading his case file. His concentration broke when his junior tapped on his shoulder. “The judge is calling you, sir,” the junior told him.
Although Mardia was sure this wasn’t related to his case, he was initially confused. However, he was pleasantly surprised, when the court sought his assistance in a matter.
On 30 August, the high court said in an order that a lawyer named Shreyansh Mardia “has volunteered to bear all the expenses relating to the delivery” of a 16-year-old pregnant rape survivor. Consequently, it said that given the lawyer’s gesture, “no direction for bearing the delivery expenses” was required to be given to the State of Rajasthan.
The case emanates from an FIR filed in the Sirohi district of Rajasthan, home to Mount Abu, in which the family members of a 16-year-old girl alleged that she was raped by a man, who was threatening her with murder if she told anyone about it.
When the girl’s plea for medical termination of pregnancy came before Justice Dinesh Mehta on 20 August, the court allowed her to terminate her pregnancy, provided she was medically fit and could sustain the procedure. It also directed the Medical Board to carry out the termination within three days of the order.
A little over a week later, the survivor’s counsel, Priyanka Borana, informed the court that although it had allowed the medical termination of the pregnancy by the Medical Board, the foetus was already 29 weeks old when the girl was taken to the hospital for the procedure. Therefore, the pregnancy could not be terminated owing to a threat to her health.
At this, the Rajasthan government contended that it could not be directed to bear the victim’s medical expenses, despite a ruling by the Supreme Court earlier this year, where a bench led by Chief Justice of India D.Y. Chandrachud had directed the Maharashtra government to bear the medical expenses of a minor rape survivor.
The court then turned to 36-year-old lawyer, Shreyansh Mardia.
“On Court’s request, Mr Shreyansh Mardia, Advocate has volunteered to bear all the expenses relating to the delivery of the victim,” the court said in its order.
Speaking to the Print, the Jodhpur-based lawyer said, “I hadn’t volunteered to do it. The court chose me to do it. However, some media outlets had previously misreported that I had volunteered to bear the costs.”
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How it unfolded in court
Mardia was at the court to represent two students, whose enrolment at the Rajasthan University of Health Sciences had been stopped.
“I was item number two on the board and was reading my brief, but the court took up the victim’s medical termination of pregnancy matter first, out of turn, when her lawyer mentioned it. Once it began, I was busy reading my case files. Within only a few minutes of the hearing, my junior told me the judge was looking at me,” he said.
Mardia recounted that when he looked up at the bench, Justice Mehta said to him, “Mr Mardia, we need your assistance. Please come to the dias.”
At that point, his first thought was that the court wanted him to be an amicus curiae in the case (a lawyer who assists the court through advice or research).
Mardia, who regularly appears before Justice Mehta’s bench, said that he was surprised to find that the court wanted him to help with the finances.
“I was chosen to do this, but had anyone else been in my place, they would’ve done the same thing on humanitarian grounds. It’s also a matter of pride that the court chose me,” he told ThePrint, adding that he instantly acceded to the request and that no lawyer would have refused to do so if a judge had asked them.
When asked why he thought the court chose to ask an advocate for help, as opposed to coming down heavily on the Rajasthan government, Mardia opined, “I think the bench wanted to nip the matter in the bud as the pregnancy was already around 29 weeks old, when the 30 August order was pronounced.”
Sensitive to the fact that time is of the essence in such cases and lack of proper care could affect the health of the survivor and the unborn child, the court could have made this decision rather than delaying it further and passing on the baton, he said.
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Who is Shreyansh Mardia
A National Law University Jodhpur graduate, Mardia has been practising law for over ten years now. Starting his journey with a Delhi-based litigation firm called Virmani & Company, where he practised before the Supreme Court and various high courts, Mardia is a fourth-generation lawyer, who hails from Rajasthan’s Sirohi. Presently, he resides in Jodhpur and also works closely with NLU’s legal wing.
Throughout his legal practice, he has mostly dealt with civil matters. He also takes up multiple medical and health matters, and represents various medical and nursing colleges and universities teaching medical courses. Adding that this could also be one of the reasons for the court choosing him, Mardia said, “We have a very mixed bag of matters. These include cases where I have represented Indian Institute of Management Udaipur and even aggrieved candidates challenging the recruitment process to constable posts, among others.”
Besides covering the minor rape survivor’s delivery expenses in the present case, Mardia had also represented the late rape victim’s family in the Delta Meghwal case from 2016, where a 17-year-old Dalit girl from a village in Rajasthan’s Barmer district was found dead in the water tank of her hostel in Bikaner after being raped by a physical training instructor at her college.
In that case, a POCSO (Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act) court in Rajasthan had awarded rigorous life imprisonment in 2021 to the three accused belonging to dominant castes, including the PT teacher of the Jain Adarsh Teacher Training Institute, where she was a student. When the convicts’ appeal came before the Rajasthan High Court, Mardia had argued against the suspension of their sentences and secured relief for the late victim’s family.
In the current case, all medical expenses of the 16-year-old up until the delivery will be covered by him. After the birth of the child, further costs will be borne by the Child Welfare Committee (CWC), Sirohi, he clarified.
Another suggestion made by him in court about the CWC’s facilitation of the adoption process was incorporated in the 30 August order.
“The CWC is a very effective body that not only takes care of the victims, but also has the requisite infrastructure to do so. Everything from nappies to baby food is taken care of. Apart from this, they also have trained nannies and ‘palnas’ (swinging baby cradles) outside, where unwilling parents can leave their babies,” he said.
Mardia added that the delivery is still a few weeks away and although he is not directly in touch with the survivor or her family, he communicates with them through the police and the legal aid cell of the Sirohi district.
Reactions court’s decision has evoked
“My family, which includes my lawyer wife Shambhavi and our two children, were proud of me,” Mardia said. He told ThePrint that his wife had graduated from the Government Law College in Bombay and frequently appears before the Rajasthan High Court.
Recalling that several of his friends, acquaintances, and even clients reached out to him with words of encouragement and support on hearing the news, Mardia heartily said that his lawyer friend Anirudh Kapoor’s words stood out.
Kapoor, who currently handles legal and compliance matters at PayU Payments, wrote to him in a text message: “It’s very easy to say one wants to help, but actually doing it is very different. I am glad you think this way and had no hesitation to help out, when the opportunity came. The world needs more people like you.”
Quoting a dialogue from Christopher Nolan’s The Dark Knight Rises, Kapoor wrote, “A hero can be anyone, even a man doing something as simple and reassuring as putting a coat on a young boy’s shoulders to let him know that the world hadn’t ended.”
(Edited by Mannat Chugh)
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