The Nagpur bench of the Bombay High Court recently allowed a woman to terminate her pregnancy, which was a result of promises made to marry, saying, “In India a child to an unwed mother is taken as a social stigma of a serious nature and she does not want to carry such stigma for her entire life.”
A division bench of Justices P.N. Deshmukh and Pushpa Ganediwala was hearing a criminal petition filed by a 25-year-old woman from Chandrapur, seeking permission to terminate her 22-week-old pregnancy.
The lady, a commerce graduate preparing for competitive exams, met Avinash Meshram on Instagram in 2017, and fell in love. Mr. Meshram promised to marry her and had intercourse with her on this pretext. When she conceived in January, he reassured her that they would get married but started avoiding her calls and eventually broke-up as the pregnancy advanced.
Soon thereafter, she registered a FIR against Mr. Mesharam under Section 376 (punishment for rape) of the Indian Penal Code.
After reviewing the report submitted by the medical board of Chandrapur, the court recorded that the case was undisputedly of pregnancy of an unwed mother, who feels she has been cheated at the hands of her ex-lover.
“Under Section 3 of Medical Termination of Pregnancy Act, any pregnancy alleged by the pregnant woman to have been caused by rape, the anguish caused by such pregnancy shall be presumed to constitute a grave injury to the mental health of the pregnant woman,” it said.
The court held, “We take the judicial notice of the fact that in India a child to an unwed mother is taken as a social stigma of a serious nature and she does not want to carry such stigma for her entire life. In our opinion, it would neither be beneficial for the petitioner not for the foetus in her womb.” It said in the present social milieu in India, one can visualise the future complications the complainant may have to face in her social and married life if she is deprived of her reproductive choice now, which has its origin in her fundamental right to life, liberty and human dignity.
The court also suggested that the complainant has the option to give up the child for adoption as per the law under Juvenile Justice Act, if she does not want it.
“As per the procedure established by Central Adoption Resource Authority, her name would be kept undisclosed forever and she or the child would not allowed to ever meet each other. Even, the name of the biological parents of the child would be kept undisclosed from the child forever,” court said.
