Individual with poor mental health may not be mentally ill: Bombay High Court allows abortion

The Bombay High Court recently distinguished between ‘mental health’ and ‘mental illness’ in order to allow an 18-year-old woman to terminate an unwanted 26-week pregnancy on the ground that further continuation of the pregnancy would adversely affect her mental health..The Bench of Justices Ujjal Bhuyan and Madhav Jamdar relied upon the judgment in the case of Sidra Mehboob Shaikh v. State of Maharashtra, among other verdicts, to conclude that mental health is a wider concept that encompasses mental illness within it.“Many individuals with poor mental health may not be formally diagnosed with any mental illness.” the order stated.Hence even though they sounded similar, the expressions mental health and mental illness are not the same, the Court held,.The Court was dealing with a petition filed by an unmarried 18-year-old woman whose socio-economic background was clearly discernible. Compelling a girl of tender age to have an unwanted child may lead to disastrous consequences for the rest of her life and also for her family, the Court observed. .The order was passed despite a report from the Medical Board that there are no mental or medical reasons warranting termination. The Board had been constituted to specifically test the pregnant woman’s physical and mental condition .“Mental condition that the patient suffers from does not fulfill the criteria of substantial risk of causing grave mental injury to the mother,” the report had stated, concluding that termination of pregnancy was not warranted in this case..The Court noted that the woman's socio-economic background was not taken into consideration by the Medical Board in its report. While considering Section 3 of the Medical Termination of Pregnancy Act, 1971, the Court held,"Sub-section (3) of section 3 as extracted above mandates that while taking the decision as to whether continuance of pregnancy would involve such risk of injury to the health of the mother, account may be taken of the pregnant woman’s actual or reasonable foreseeable environment which expression was elaborately explained by us in Sidra Mehboob Shaikh (supra)."Thus, the Court permitted the woman to terminate her pregnancy..Advocates Shriram Kulkarni and Minal Havan appeared for the petitioner. Additional Government Pleader Uma Palsuledesai appeared for State. .[Read order]