New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Friday declined to interfere with a judgment of the Punjab and Haryana high court holding that consent is required only of the woman undergoing medical termination of pregnancy, and the husband cannot force his wife to continue an unwanted pregnancy.
The high court in 2011, while rejecting the husband’s plea for Rs 30 lakh damages from wife, doctors, her parents and brother, had also held that “a woman is not a machine in which raw material is put and a finished product comes out. She should be mentally prepared to conceive, continue the same and give birth to a child”.
The CJI said as per the law, only the woman’s consent is required.
No question of damages: CJI
A three-judge bench of Chief Justice Dipak Misra and Justices A.M. Khanwilkar and D.Y. Chandrachud while agreeing with the high court's judgment dismissed the appeal filed by the husband Anil Kumar Malhotra challenging this judgment.
The CJI told the counsel for Mr Malhotra that as abortion was conducted by the doctors with the consent of the woman, there is no question of damages.
The CJI noted that as per the law, only the woman’s consent is required and she is entitled to say that she did not want to bear the child of the husband.
Seema Malhotra was married to Anil Kumar Malhotra in 1994. They had a male child in 1995. Due to the hostilities between the parties, Seema Malhotra and her minor son had been staying with her parents at Chandigarh since 1999.
