The Allahabad high court on Monday directed the Bulandshahr district magistrate to apprise it whether a 12-year-old rape survivor, whose pregnancy was terminated by a court order, is entitled to compensation under the U.P. Rani Laxmi Bai Mahila Samman Kosh-2015 as well as whether the mother of the victim, being a labourer, is entitled to a residence under PM Awas Yojana.
The Allahabad high court court further sought the status of the investigation being conducted pursuant to the registration of the FIR in the rape case. The high court has fixed August 9 as the next date of hearing in the matter.
The bench comprising Justice Mahesh Chandra Tripathi and Justice Prashant Kumar passed the order in a writ plea filed by the 12-year-old rape survivor, who also has hearing and speech impairment, and had sought to terminate her 25-week pregnancy.
During the course of hearing, state government had apprised the court that pregnancy of the girl was terminated in the night of July 15-16.
Raghav Arora, the counsel for the petitioner, said, “On the next date, the state government will apprise that whether the rape survivor is entitled to compensation under UP Rani Laxmi Bai Mahila Samman Kosh,2015 and what is the status of investigation in the criminal case.”
Earlier, on July 12, the Allahabad high court allowed the rape survivor to undergo medical termination of pregnancy after taking into account the medical board’s opinion that the continuation of pregnancy poses a greater risk to her physical and mental health due to her “tender age”.
{{/usCountry}}Earlier, on July 12, the Allahabad high court allowed the rape survivor to undergo medical termination of pregnancy after taking into account the medical board’s opinion that the continuation of pregnancy poses a greater risk to her physical and mental health due to her “tender age”.
{{/usCountry}}On July 11, the high court had observed that in a case of sexual assault, denying a woman the right to say “no” to medical termination of pregnancy and fasten her with responsibility of motherhood would amount to denying her “human right to live with dignity” as she has a right in relation to her body, which includes saying “yes or no” to being a mother.
The court had said that a woman cannot be forced to give birth to the child of a man who had sexually assaulted her and to force the victim to give birth to the child of a man who sexually assaulted would result in unexplainable miseries.