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Synopsis

The Delhi High Court on Friday dismissed a plea seeking direction to terminate the ongoing pregnancy of a 25 year old unmarried woman who is almost 24 weeks pregnant. Additionally, the Court issued notice on the aspect of including unmarried women within the ambit of the Rule 3B of the Medical Termination of Pregnancy Rules 2003 (as amended on 21.10.2021) for termination of pregnancy.

A bench of Chief Justice Satish Chandra Sharma and Justice Subramonium Prasad noted, "The Petitioner, who is an unmarried woman and whose pregnancy arises out of a consensual relationship, is clearly not covered by any of the Clauses under the Medical Termination of Pregnancy Rules, 2003."

The order has been passed in a plea seeking direction to terminate an ongoing pregnancy and direction to the respondents from taking any coercive action or criminal proceedings against the women or any registered medical practitioner terminating the pregnancy of the women at any approved private center or hospital registered by the Delhi Government.

The plea further sought direction to include unmarried women also within the ambit of the Rule 3B of the Medical Termination of Pregnancy Rules 2003 (as amended on October 21, 2021) for termination of pregnancy under clause (b) of sub-section (2) Section 3 of the MTP Act, for a period of up to twenty-four weeks.

However, the bench has issued notice on the limited aspect of deciding on the issue of including women within the ambit of Rule 38 of the Medical Termination of Pregnancy Rules 2003 and has sought responses from the respondents to be filed before August 28, 2022.

Whereas, on the issue of interim relief seeking direction to allow termination of pregnancy, the bench observed that Section 3(2) (a) of the Act provides that the Medical Practitioner can terminate the pregnancy, provided, the pregnancy does not exceed 20 weeks. Additionally, Section 3(2) (b) of the Act provides for the termination in circumstances where the pregnancy exceeds 20 weeks but does not exceed 24 weeks.

During the first phase of the hearing, the Chief Justice suggested the woman give birth and give the child for adoption. The Court had said that this would amount to "virtually killing" the child.

However, the counsel appearing for the woman after seeking instructions informed the bench that the woman still want to abort her pregnancy.

Later, the bench asked the Court master to turn off the video conferencing link. "Unnecessarily the news will pop-up," the court said.

CASE TITLE: Ms. X Vs. THE PRINCIPAL SECRETARY HEALTH AND FAMILY WELFARE DEPARTMENT GOVT OF NCT OF DELHI