CJI’s 2009 HC order finds resonance in SC ruling on 15-year-old’s abortion
The Supreme Court on Thursday not only refused to reopen its order allowing termination of a 30-week pregnancy of a 15-year-old Delhi girl, but also brought Chief Justice of India Surya Kant’s own jurisprudential journey full circle, as the first judge of the country reflected on how a question of reproductive autonomy and best interest of the mother came up before him 16 years ago– only for the law to take a different course. Chief Justice of India Surya Kant. (PTI) Declining to entertain a curative plea filed by the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS), the bench led by the CJI and also comprising Justice Joymalya Bagchi made it clear that neither the Centre nor medical institutions could step into the shoes of the individual in matters of reproductive choice. “Let us not make it a fight between the State and its citizens,” said the court on Thursday, cautioning against framing the issue as one between “an unborn child and a child”. But even as the bench reaffirmed the primacy of autonomy, the …