The Supreme Court delivered a sharp rebuke to the central government on Thursday after it filed a curative plea challenging a court order that had allowed a 15-year-old rape survivor to terminate her 31-week pregnancy. The bench made no effort to conceal its displeasure.
“Nothing can compensate for the agony she suffered after the rape,” Chief Justice Surya Kant said pointedly, directing his remarks at Additional Solicitor General Aishwarya Bhati, who was appearing for the government, according to an NDTV report. “Give respect to citizens, madam. You have no locus to challenge the termination order; only the victim or her family can challenge,” he added.
Justice Joymalya Bagchi was equally direct. “We respect individual choices and so should you,” he told the government’s counsel, as per the report.
The court’s frustration was triggered by Bhati’s submission that terminating the pregnancy was no longer medically possible at this stage, and that the girl’s only remaining option was to carry the pregnancy to term and give the child up for adoption.
The bench rejected that framing outright, making clear that the government had no standing to intervene in a matter that concerned the reproductive choices of a minor who had already suffered the trauma of sexual assault. The court’s earlier order permitting the termination had been challenged by the Centre through the curative plea, a move the judges described as wholly inappropriate.
The case has drawn considerable attention, with the court’s intervention seen as a firm assertion that the state cannot override the rights of a rape survivor, least of all a child, when it comes to decisions about her own body.
