Mumbai: A man who had impregnated a 27-year-old woman suffering from borderline intellectual disability agrees to marry her after the father of the woman moved the Bombay High Court seeking permission to medically terminate her 21-week pregnancy on the grounds that his daughter is mentally unsound, unmarried, and incapable of raising a child, a lawyer informed on Tuesday.
During the hearing of the petition, the father's advocate informed the court that following the suggestion of the court before reaching some conclusion of the petition, a talk with the man is necessary; hence, parents were in talks with the man regarding marriage, and there are positive indications of marriage.
The division bench of Justices Ravindra Ghuge and Rajesh Patil granted permission to withdraw the petition and in its order observed that ''Petitioner father says that positive developments have taken place. There is a possibility that the woman and the man may marry. He therefore seeks to withdraw this petition. The petition is disposed of.''
Last week, the court during the hearing had posed the question of whether a woman with below-average intelligence has no right to be a mother.
In response to the father's plea before the court, the woman expressed her desire to continue the pregnancy. She subsequently disclosed the identity of the man she was in a relationship with, who is also the father of her child, and expressed her wish to marry him.
The woman was also examined by a medical board at JJ Hospital, which reported that she was not mentally ill but diagnosed with “borderline intellectual disability” with an IQ of 75 while both the woman and the fetus were medically fit and that there were no congenital anomalies. The board concluded that while medical termination of pregnancy (MTP) was possible, it was not mandatory.
