The Supreme Court, in a bench led by Justice B V Nagarathna, has ruled that no court can force a woman — particularly a minor — to carry a pregnancy against her will. The judgment grounds reproductive autonomy firmly within Article 21, treating bodily integrity as a non-negotiable component of the right to life and personal liberty. The ruling reinforces prior MTP Act jurisprudence and extends its protection explicitly to minors in unwanted pregnancy situations.

This ruling crystallises the constitutional doctrine of reproductive autonomy under Article 21. The right to life and personal liberty has been interpreted expansively since Maneka Gandhi v. Union of India (1978), where the Supreme Court held that 'personal liberty' is not a narrow concept and any law curtailing it must satisfy the triple test: it must be just, fair, and reasonable. Reproductive autonomy flows from this: a woman's decision whether to continue a pregnancy is an exercise of her bodily integrity, which is a core facet of personal liberty.

The Medical Termination of Pregnancy (MTP) Act, 1971, as amended in 2021, sets the statutory framework. The 2021 amendment raised the upper limit for termination from 20 to 24 weeks for certain categories — including survivors of sexual assault, minors, and women with foetal abnormalities. A Medical Board constituted under the Act opines on late-term requests, but critically, the Supreme Court has now made clear that even judicial intervention cannot override a woman's will.

The landmark precedent chain runs through: (1) Suchita Srivastava v. Chandigarh Administration (2009), where the SC held reproductive choice is a dimension of personal liberty under Art 21; (2) X v. Principal Secretary Health (2022), where the Court extended MTP benefits to unmarried women; and (3) this present ruling, which adds the dimension that no court order can substitute for the woman's own consent. For minors, guardians and courts may facilitate access to termination, but cannot compel continuation. The ruling also implicitly engages the right to dignity under Article 21, read with the State's obligations under Articles 14 and 15(3).