10-year-old Chandigarh rape victim delivers baby after SC denies abortion

Mother and child were stable, adding newborn was in intensive care as it was underweight: Hospital

A 10-year-old girl, who was raped by her uncle repeatedly, delivered a girl child in a government hospital here on Thursday, hospital officials said.

The mother and child were stable, hospital sources said, adding the newborn was in intensive care as it was underweight.

The rape victim was admitted to the Government Medical College and Hospital in Sector 32 for the past two days as a team of doctors monitored her health.

The delivery took place through Cesarean surgery.

The Supreme Court had last month refused to allow the rape victim to undergo an abortion due to grave risk to her life.

A division bench of Chief Justice J.S. Khehar and Justice D.Y. Chandrachud turned down the plea after the report of a medical board, set up by Chandigarh's Postgraduate Institute of Medical Education and Research (PGIMER) on the court's orders to examine the pregnant child, warned that an abortion would risk the girl's life.

"In view of the recommendation made by medical board, we are satisfied it would nor be in the interest of girl and neither to foetus who is 32 weeks old. We decline to terminate pregnancy," the court said.

The order came on a PIL by advocate Alok Srivastava, who moved the top court after a plea for the medical termination of pregnancy was refused by a district court in Chandigarh on July 18. He said rape victim's body was not ready for childbirth.

The girl's pregnancy was only discovered recently after her parents took her to hospital when she complained of stomach pain. They discovered that the girl had been repeatedly raped by her uncle over seven months.