A 10-year-old child who was raped repeatedly by her maternal uncle over the past few months, and is nearly 7-months pregnant now, will have to carry the baby to full term after the Supreme Court today rejected the plea seeking its nod to terminate the pregnancy. The PIL was filed after a Chandigarh district court on July 18 refused to let the girl undergo the abortion.
A bench comprising Chief Justice J S Khehar and Justice D Y Chandrachud took note of the report of the medical board set up by PGI (Postgraduate Institute of Medical Education and Research) Chandigarh to examine the rape survivor and the consequences if the termination of pregnancy was allowed.
The girl belongs to an extremely poor family, her father is a government employee and mother works as a domestic helper.
Taking the report into consideration, the bench said: "Pregnancy is 32 weeks old".
Indian law does not allow medical terminations after 20 weeks unless there is a threat to the mother's life.
Srivastata moved the Supreme Court after the appeal to abort the then 26-week foetus was rejected by a lower court, despite warnings that the child's body was not ready for childbirth.
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Her parents got to know of it when they took her to a doctor after she complained of a stomach pain, her parents said.
The girl was raped allegedly by her maternal uncle, a hotel worker, who has been arrested.
Legal demands for the ten-year-old to have an abortion came about when the case was made public.
Quoting the doctor, her counsel had said the problem "may increase significantly before the delivery causing harm to the developing brain and possibly cognitive impairment" and after the birth, the infant would require neurosurgical procedure which could be expensive.
To the court's suggestion on setting up permanent medical boards in states, solicitor general Ranjit Kumar said he would inform the court whether such boards can operate while amendments to the Medical Termination of Pregnancy Act (MTPA), 1971, considered extending the time-limit from 20 to 24 weeks. The court also ordered the child's examination by a medical board consented to by one of her parents.
However, the BBC's Geeta Pandey said India has recently seen a flurry of child rape survivors asking for an abortion.
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