The Supreme Court convened a special bench on Saturday and expressed displeasure over the Gujarat High Court adjourning a rape victim's plea for a medical termination of her 26-week pregnancy, and said "valuable time" has been lost during the pendency of the matter.
The 25-year-old rape victim had approached the high court on August 7 and the matter was taken up the next day. On August 8, the high court issued a direction for the constitution of a medical board to ascertain the status of pregnancy as well as the health status of petitioner. The report was submitted on August 10 by the medical college where she was examined. However, the top court noted that although the report was taken on record by high court on August 11, "strangely", the matter was listed 12 days later i.e. on August 23.
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'Valuable time lost'
Noting the delay in taking up the matter, a bench of Justices B V Nagarathna and Ujjal Bhuyan observed that there should be a sense of urgency in such cases and not a "lackadaisical attitude" of treating the matter as any normal case and just adjourning it.
The bench also noted that the petitioner's counsel has brought to its notice that the case status of the matter showed that the petition was rejected on August 17 by the high court but no reasons were dictated in the court and the order is yet to be uploaded on the high court's website.
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"In the circumstance, we direct the secretary general of this court to inquire from the registrar general of the High Court of Gujarat and ascertain as to whether the impugned order has been uploaded or not," the bench said.
Observing that valuable days have been lost in just postponing the case, the bench said when the petitioner had sought for the termination of pregnancy and had approached the high court, she was already 26-week pregnant.
The apex court said it would take up the case as first item on August 21. The bench also sought a response from the state government and agencies concerned on the plea. Under the Medical Termination of Pregnancy (MTP) Act, the the upper limit for the termination of pregnancy is 24 weeks for married women, special categories including survivors of rape and other vulnerable women such as the differently-abled and minors.
