Day after delivery, SC notice on plea for Rs 10 lakh for10-year-old

Satya Prakash

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, August 18

A day after a 10-year-old rape survivor from Chandigarh delivered a child, the Supreme Court today issued notices to the Centre and the Union Territory on a plea by senior counsel Indira Jaising (appointed amicus curiae on March 27, 2015) demanding compensation.

"A 10-year-old mother cannot look after the child. Nothing has been paid to her so far," Jaising told a Bench headed by Justice Madan B Lokur that asked the National Legal Services Authority and the Chandigarh District Legal Services Authority to respond.

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She said the authorities insisted that compensation would be given only after a charge-sheet was filed in the case. "That is no answer ... What they say is absurd,” the Bench said.

Jaising pointed out that another Bench headed by Justice Dipak Misra had ordered the Bihar Government to pay Rs 10 lakh to a 35-year-old HIV positive rape survivor whose unwanted pregnancy could not be terminated owing to the delay in the decision-making process.

“It is just and necessary that the victim girl is rehabilitated with change of identity, her education be completed, and she is rehabilitated and be integrated with society for which adequate compensation is required to achieve this aim,” read Jaising's plea.

She said the compensation should be for all means including, not restricted to, her education, post- therapeutic care, vocation and rehabilitation.

“It is, therefore, necessary that the girl-child be provided with an amount of Rs 10 lakh of which Rs 3 lakh may be directed to be deposited forthwith, whereas the balance amount of Rs 7 lakh may be deposited in an interest-bearing fixed deposit amount that may be utilised for the welfare of the minor girl,” the plea further read.

Jaising said the minor’s parents wanted to give the child away in adoption “so that they do not live with the trauma of rape of their 10-year-old daughter”. She demanded a fast-track trial under POCSO on a priority basis and a competent support person for the girl during the trial.

She requested that the identity of the child and her parents was protected and that there was no media reporting of the trial.

The Supreme Court had on July 28 dismissed the plea for permission for terminating the girl's 32-week-old pregnancy after a board of doctors from the PGIMER, Chandigarh, opined against it. The minor was allegedly raped by her uncle.

Under the Medical Termination of Pregnancy Act, a woman is not permitted to abort her foetus after the pregnancy crosses 20 weeks, unless the mother’s life is at risk.

Beeline for adoption

Chandigarh: The Child Welfare Committee and the Social Welfare Department on Friday received numerous calls, some from abroad, from those wanting to adopt the girl child. Harjinder Kaur, Chairperson, Chandigarh Commission for Protection for Child Rights (CCPCR), said: “We are hopeful the child will get foster parents in less than a year.” The Social Welfare Department has hired four women attendants for the newborn. Meanwhile, the 10-year-old mother continues to be in the ICU because of high blood pressure. TNS