New Delhi, Aug. 17: The Supreme Court today awarded Rs 10 lakh in compensation to an HIV-afflicted and raped girl from Bihar who could not abort her pregnancy and was forced to deliver a child because of bureaucratic delays.

The 36-year-old woman, staying at a remand home in Patna, had told Patna Medical College Hospital (PMCH) authorities of her desire to terminate her pregnancy on March 4, when she was over 13 weeks pregnant. But PMCH authorities delayed it on the ground of obtaining consent from her estranged husband and father. She was taken to PMCH for an abortion on March 14. Her father and brother signed a consent form after which she was sent to the remand home.

She was again taken to PMCH on April 3 but the abortion did not take place. By then she was 20 weeks pregnant. An NGO took the matter to Patna High Court. A single judge again sought her family's response and later refused abortion. The matter reached Supreme Court in May by which time the foetus was 26 week old and AIIMS doctors said abortion was risky. The court asked IGIMS-Patna to conduct a safe delivery and awarded her Rs 3 lakh through an interim order.

Today's final order held the state and high court negligent and awarded the woman another Rs 10 lakh.