Lagatar24 Desk
New Delhi, Sept 29: The Supreme Court held on Thursday that provisions in the Medical Termination of Pregnancy Act (MTP Act) allowing a women to terminate a pregnancy beyond 20 weeks cannot be denied to a woman merely because she is unmarried.
According to a ruling by a bench of Justices DY Chandrachud, AS Bopanna, and JB Pardiwala, Rule 3B(c) of the MTP Rules cannot be interpreted narrowly enough to deny an unmarried women the right to abortion beyond 20 weeks because doing so would be the violation of Article 14 of the Constitution.
“If Rule 3B(c) was to be interpreted that it applies to married woman it would mean that unmarried does not involve in sex. Thus the artificial distinction between married and unmarried woman cannot be sustained,” the Court said.
Only those who have survived rape, children, women whose marital status changed during pregnancy, women who are mentally ill, or women who have a foetal abnormality are permitted to terminate pregnancies up to 24 weeks, according to the MTP Rules.
According to the Act and Rules, pregnancy abortion is only permitted up to 20 weeks in circumstances when the pregnancy resulted from a consenting sexual connection.
However, the Supreme Court ruled that making such a distinction would violate Article 14 of the Constitution’s guarantee of equality.
“Object of Section 3(2)(b) of MTP act allowing woman to undergo abortion after 20-24 weeks including only married and excluding unmarried woman will be violative of Article 14,” the Court said.
The Supreme Court’s decision in July to allow an unmarried woman who became pregnant through consensual intercourse to abort her 24-week-old foetus gave rise to the current case.
The Manipur-born appellant, who is now a resident of Delhi, filed a petition with the Delhi High Court as soon as she learned she was pregnant.
An unmarried women who is carrying a child as a result of a consenting sexual encounter is not allowed to terminate a pregnancy after 20 weeks, according to the High Court, which denied the lady’s request for relief.
The woman then filed an appeal with the Supreme Court.
On July 21, the Supreme Court overruled the Delhi High Court’s judgement to deny the abortion permission.
The highest court stated in its order from July that the law must be given a broad interpretation and that the purpose of the legislature should be looked at.
