Don’t thrust products of conception on minor victims of sexual assault or their family members, orders Madras High Court
The Hindu
Madras High Court orders proper handling of products of conception from minor victims of sexual assault, protecting their privacy.
The Madras High Court on Monday ordered that henceforth, the products of conception obtained from minor victims of sexual assault, after they undergo medical termination of pregnancy, should not be thrust upon the minor girls or their family members for being buried or cremated.
A special Division Bench of Justices N. Anand Venkatesh and Sunder Mohan directed the State to ensure that if the foetus was less than 24 weeks, it should be sent to the forensic sciences laboratory for analysis and retained over there until the completion of trial in the sexual assault case.
After the completion of the criminal case, the foetus should be destroyed by considering it as biomedical waste. The judges took note that it could not be destroyed before completion of the case because of the possibility of the foetus being required for re-analysis during the course of investigation or trial.
If the foetus was more than 24 weeks old, the femur alone should be sent to the forensic laboratory for analysis and the rest of it should be destroyed by following the procedures, the judges said, and directed the State government also to come up with guidelines in this regard.
The orders were passed after activist Vidya Reddy of Tulir, Centre for Prevention and Healing of Child Sexual Abuse, brought it to the notice of the court that there were no guidelines with respect to handling the products of conception which ultimately end up in the hands of the victim girls and their families.
The Division Bench took note of her submissions as well as a recent judgement of the Supreme Court which states that whenever a minor approaches a registered medical practitioner for termination of pregnancy that had occurred due to consensual sex, her identity and personal details should not be revealed.
In order to ensure that the identity and personal details of such victims do not get revealed, the judge ordered that the Superintendent of Police of the district concerned or the Deputy Commissioner of Police, in the case of Commissionerates, would be held responsible if the identity of any victim gets revealed.