The Bombay High Court said it would accept the abortion at 30 weeks; it directed that the samples of blood and tissues taken were preserved for criminal intent to be brought for punishment at a later time.
The three-member Bench in Bombay High Court lately cleared an 11-year-old rape victim, after which the medical board allowed carrying her pregnancy at 30 weeks, deeming that she was fit physiologically and mentally too to undergo it.
In the order passed by a bench of Justices Sharmila Deshmukh and Jitendra Jain, responding to a plea filed by the girl’s father, he said, “The family initially thought it to be a stomach infection at that time when his daughter’s stomach was getting hardened.”
A Thane hospital had prescribed the medication, and she showed no signs of improvement. It was on 24 October, when her father shifted her to Mumbai’s hospital only, that a gynecologist confirmed the pregnancy of the girl. “Therefore, her father had alsoed for FIR against the unknown assailant.
The court must intervene as the fetus was more than 20 weeks old, and the survivor is the daughter of a doctor.
It has been filed under section 65(2) of Bharatiya Nyay Sanhita, which is for the rape of a woman below twelve years of age, and section 4 of the POCSO Act, which relates to punishment for penetrative sexual assault.
The bench held that blood and tissue samples taken from the fetus be preserved for DNA analysis, which may be used in future criminal investigations.
They clarified that if the child happens to be born alive, then the state shall fully take care of that child and provide all possible medical care. In that scenario, the bench said, all kinds of medical facilities must be put at their disposal to save the child’s life.
