Tanvi Sinha
The Delhi High court on 11th January, 2021 with a Division bench of Chief Justice DN Patel and J. Jyoti Singh allowed a woman’s plea where she asked for permission to have her 28 week old foetus (7 months in the mother’s womb) to be aborted due to the medical report stating that due to a report on 27 weeks, 5 days that stated that the foetus’ skull bone could not be formed due to medical issue, the child would be incompatible with life, and would be essentially a stillborn.
On 7th January, the court had dictated AIIMS to prepare a medical report and on the submission of which- on 11th January promptly gave out a green light to the woman and dismissed with her plea.
The woman’s petition had in fact contested the provision of the Medical Termination of Pregnancy Act of 1971, that prohibits abortions following 20 weeks, as violative of a woman’s fundamental rights under Article 14 and Article 21. She stated in her plea that in today’s technologically advanced society there was no safety issue with doing such a thing even after 20 weeks.
While the court did not speak much on making the provision of the act invalid, it gave her a green light owing to the circumstances.