Supreme Law News

Should rape victims be informed about the consequences of pregnancy termination

While considering a plea submitted by a 16-year-old who became pregnant after experiencing sexual assault at the hands of her boyfriend, the Court made the order.

When a rape results in a pregnancy termination, the medical board and the investigating police officer should inform the rape victim and, if she is a minor, her guardians, in Hindi and English about the advantages and disadvantages of a medical termination of the pregnancy [Minor L Thr Guardian J v State & Anr].

According to Justice Swarana Kanta Sharma, it is crucial that the investigating officer (IO) and the medical board make every effort to provide an explanation in a language that the victim and her guardian can understand.

"This Court further orders that going forward, wherever the victim and her guardian understand Hindi, or English in the case of a minor victim, the pros and cons of the medical termination of pregnancy in rape cases will be explained in Hindi," the Court stated.

While considering a plea submitted by a 16-year-old who was carrying a 25-week gestation pregnancy, the court made the order.

The victim claimed that her contact with a male who had sexually assaulted her led to her becoming pregnant and that she was seeking a medical termination of the pregnancy.

The victim was living with her aunt following the death of her parents.

Judge Sharma voiced his great dissatisfaction with the hospital administration's refusal to provide an opinion on pregnancy termination in the absence of a court order during the August 3 hearing of the case.

The bench stated that although the court had issued specific instructions for termination of pregnancy in cases where victims of sexual assault are pregnant for more than 24 weeks, in January 2023, in the case of Minor R Thr Mother H v. State of NCT of Delhi & Anr, the order was not being followed.

Judge Sharma then gave the hospital instructions to form a medical board and to have the victim examined on Saturday, August 4.

Upon the matter's resumption on Saturday night, the medical board's report indicated that the victim refused to have her medical termination.

Consequently, the Court ordered the victim to return to the Guru Teg Bahadur Hospital's medical board and superintendent to repeat the explanation of the benefits and drawbacks of pregnancy termination.

This Court observes that there appears to have been a miscommunication because the medical report submitted to this Court makes no reference of having informed the victim that she would not live.

The Medical Board had essentially stated that the victim is mentally capable of making a decision and that medical termination of pregnancy is a possibility. Allow the Medical Board to ask for her opinion once again. Should she reiterate that she wants to carry on with her pregnancy and does not want a medical termination, she will need to appear before this court on November 6, 2023, at 3:00 PM.

In the event that she and her guardian agree to a medical termination of the pregnancy and the Medical Board determines that this is a suitable case, the victim's medical termination of the pregnancy will be carried out on the same day, in accordance with the guidelines outlined in paragraph 18 of the order dated 03.11.2023, to avoid wasting valuable time by having to ask the court for permission once more.

The Court additionally stated that in order to prevent misunderstandings, the medical board will provide the victim and her guardian with an explanation in their mother tongue of Hindi regarding the advantages and disadvantages of both medical termination of the pregnancy and maintaining the pregnancy.

"The medical examination report should be sent to this Court along with the communication that was made and the consent, whether positive or negative, of the victim and her guardian be also obtained in her mother tongue in Hindi," the Court said.

A new hearing on the subject is scheduled on November 6 at 3 p.m.

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Dr. Ajay Kummar Pandey

( LLM, MBA, (UK), PhD, AIMA, AFAI, PHD Chamber, ICTC, PCI, FCC, DFC, PPL, MNP, BNI, ICJ (UK), WP, (UK), MLE, Harvard Square, London, CT, Blair Singer Institute, (USA), Dip. in International Crime, Leiden University, the Netherlands )

Advocate & Consultant Supreme Court of India, High Courts & Tribunals.