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Informist, Friday, Feb. 6, 2026

 

NEW DELHI – The Supreme Court Friday held that courts cannot compel any woman to complete their pregnancy against her will and that her reproductive autonomy must be given sufficient emphasis. The court also allowed the medical termination of a 30-week pregnancy of a girl who had become pregnant when she was a minor.

 

"What has to be considered in the instant case is the right of the minor child to continue a pregnancy which is ex-facie illegitimate in as much as she is a minor and has to face this unfortunate situation of having the pregnancy owing to a relationship that she had," said a bench of Justices B.V. Nagarathna and Ujjal Bhuyan. The issue is not whether the relationship was consensual or whether it was a case of sexual assault; ultimately the fact that the child coceived is not legitimate, and second, the mother does not want to bear the child, said the bench.

 

The apex court directed the Sir J.J. Hospital at Mumbai to undertake the procedure of medical termination of the girl's pregnancy, bearing in mind all medical safeguards. "It is also difficult for us, but what to do. Whether we should compel her to give birth to a child? Ultimately, she doesn't want to continue the pregnancy. The bottom line is she doesn't want to give birth, that is the difficulty," said the bench.

 

The case has its genesis from the girl becoming friendly with a boy while attending tuition classes. Since the girl informed the mother that she was not having her menstrual cycles, she was medically examined and it was revealed that she had come into physical contact with her male friend by visiting his home on two occasions in different months prior to becoming an adult. Her male friend had promised her that he would marry her and thereafter, forcibly had relations with her. 

 

When the girl's mother moved the Bombay High Court for medical termination of the girl's pregnancy, the court took the opinion of a medical board, which said that there was a high chance of a live child being born if the pregnancy was terminated through a preterm delivery. The Medical Board had also opined that the foetus was without any congenital abnormality or anomaly.

 

The high court had refused permission for the medical termination of the pregnancy and said it would amount to foeticide if granted. It said the girl can give birth to the child and thereafter hand it over, after the normal feeding period by a lactating mother, to an orphanage home for adoption. Challenging the high court's order, the mother moved the apex court.

 

In India, the Medical Termination of Pregnancy Act generally allows legal abortion up to 20 weeks of gestation with the opinion of one registered medical practitioner. For special categories of women--such as rape survivors, minors, or in cases of substantial foetal abnormalities--this limit is extended to 24 weeks, requiring the opinion of two doctors.  End

 

Reported by Surya Tripathi

Edited by Tanima Banerjee

 

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