Onlykashmir.in News Desk
The High Court of Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh has permitted the medical termination of pregnancy of an 11-year-old girl, allegedly a victim of sexual assault, holding that the statutory 24-week gestational limit could not override constitutional protection in the circumstances of the case. Justice Wasim Sadiq Nargal passed the order on a petition filed on the minor’s behalf by her father, directing authorities to take immediate consequential steps for termination subject to medical assessment and the safeguards recommended by the Medical Board that examined the case.
The court was informed that a Medical Board had assessed the pregnancy at approximately 22 weeks and five days when the girl was examined on September 11, but that the gestational period had crossed the statutory 24-week limit by the time judgment was delivered, creating a legal question over whether termination could still be permitted. In arriving at its decision, the court weighed the minor’s age, the circumstances in which the pregnancy occurred and the medical opinion placed on record, concluding that the constitutional protections available to the minor took precedence over strict application of the statutory limit in these exceptional circumstances.
The judgment notes that the person allegedly responsible for the assault had not been identified or arrested at the time the court delivered its decision, leaving the criminal investigation into the alleged assault still at an early stage even as the civil relief sought through the petition was granted. The court directed that the minor’s identity and medical particulars be protected throughout the proceedings and any subsequent medical process, and ordered that necessary medical and psychological support be extended to her as part of the termination process.
The case adds to a body of jurisprudence in Indian courts where the judiciary has exercised its constitutional writ jurisdiction to permit termination beyond the statutory gestational limit set under the Medical Termination of Pregnancy framework, particularly in cases involving minors and sexual assault, where courts have generally held that rigid statutory timelines should not come at the cost of a survivor’s physical and psychological wellbeing. The order is expected to be read alongside the ongoing investigation into the alleged assault, which remains a separate and continuing process before the appropriate criminal justice authorities.
