'Nobody can be allowed to play hide and seek to commit murder of an unborn child': Madhya Pradesh HC turns down minor girl's plea to terminate pregnancy

Jabalpur: Citing misuse of judicial authority, the Madhya Pradesh High Court has denied a minor girl, allegedly raped by her brother-in-law, permission for medical termination of pregnancy (MTP).

The order was passed after the girl and her mother testified in court that they would try to protect the accused during the trial. The accused is reportedly her elder sister's husband who allegedly raped the victim.

Single Bench Justice G.S. Ahluwalia, in his April 22 order, emphasized that the court cannot be used to facilitate the termination of an unwanted pregnancy if it is suspected that the motive is to later claim no crime occurred. He stated, “Nobody can be allowed to play hide and seek to commit murder of an unborn child.”

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Clarifying that while witnesses are not bound by their initial statements and can change their testimonies during the trial, the court's authority cannot be misused to terminate a pregnancy.

"Although this court is conscious of the fact that witnesses cannot be bound by their statements and they can state whatever they want in the trial, they cannot be allowed to misuse the lawful authority of this court to kill an unborn baby," Justice Ahluwalia said in his order.

Further, the bench added, "Whether the petitioner wants to ensure the conviction of her son-in-law or not is not the concern of this court. The only concern is whether this court can be used as a tool for getting rid of an unwanted child and thereafter claiming that no offence had taken place. Nobody can be allowed to play the game of hide and seek for committing murder of an unborn child."

Referring to a previous case where judicial authority was misused to terminate a pregnancy, the court said that it had asked the survivor's mother to file an affidavit that she would stick to her statement during the trial and would not turn hostile. Despite the mother providing this affidavit, she and the survivor said they would do their best to save the accused when the judge asked for their statements about it in the courtroom. As a result, the court dismissed their petition for medical termination of pregnancy as reported by TOI.

In this case, the court while dismissing the plea said, "Looking at the real intention behind the filing of petition and admission of the petitioner that she and prosecutrix would not support the prosecution case in the trial and would make every endeavour to save the accused, this court is of considered opinion that although the unwanted child may have some adverse effect on the mental status of the girl but if the prosecutrix and her mother are going to take a somersault by claiming that no offence was committed, then this court would like to ignore the said aspect. Accordingly, no case is made out for grant of permission for medical termination of pregnancy."

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