Supreme Court opposes Gujarat HC's order on rape survivor's pregnancy termination plea, says valuable time lost

livemint.com:

Supreme Court of India during a special sitting session on Saturday opposed the Gujarat High Court's order where a 26-week pregnant rape survivor sought termination of pregnancy. A bench of Justices BV Nagarathna and Ujjal Bhuyan said that the Gujarat High Court has wasted a lot of time by adjourning the case multiple times.

The apex court was informed by the counsel for the petitioner that the 25-year-old woman had approached the high court on August 7 and the matter was taken up the next day. He said the high court had on August 8 issued a direction for the constitution of a medical board to ascertain the status of pregnancy as well as the health status of petitioner.

The report was submitted on August 10 by the medical college where she was examined. The top court noted that the report was taken on record by high court on August 11 but "strangely", the matter was listed 12 days later i.e.

on August 23 "losing sight of the fact that every day's delay was crucial and of great significance having regard to the facts and circumstances of the case". The bench also noted that the petitioner's counsel has brought to its notice that the case status of the matter showed that the petition was rejected on August 17 by the high court but no reasons were dictated in the court and the order is yet to be uploaded on the high court's website.

"In the circumstance, we direct the secretary general of this court to inquire from the registrar general of the High Court of Gujarat and ascertain as to whether the impugned order has been uploaded or not," the bench said. The bench of two judges asked Gujarat's HC, "Why was the matter stood over to August 23? How can the Court say that report comes on August 10 and then listed 13 days later?