New Delhi, May 28 (IANS): The Delhi High Court on Tuesday asked the Central government to file a reply on a plea seeking to increase the time limit from "20 weeks to 24 or 26 weeks" to terminate a pregnancy.

A division bench of Chief Justice Rajendra Menon and Justice Brijesh Sethi listed the matter for August 6 and said that some issues need scientific consideration.

The court was hearing a plea filed by social activist and lawyer Amit Sahni, who sought direction to the government to replace or suitably extend the time limit to terminate a pregnancy from 20 weeks by a further period of four to six weeks by bringing suitable amendments in Section 3(2)(b) of the Medical Termination of Pregnancy (MTP) Act.

The petitioner said that Section 3(2)(b) of the MTP Act, which prohibits abortion of a foetus after 20 weeks of pregnancy, is against the Right to Privacy as it prohibits termination of pregnancy even if the foetus is suffering from severe abnormality.

"There is substantial risk that if the child was born, it would suffer from such physical or mental abnormalities as to be seriously handicapped," the plea said.

Where pregnancy is caused by rape or due to failure of a device used by a married woman or by her husband, the MTP Act is silent on it, the plea said, adding that it makes termination of pregnancy an offence punishable under the Indian Penal Code if abortion is not done in accordance with the Act.

The plea said that the foetal abnormalities were detected between 18 to 20 weeks and the period of one-two weeks was too less for the would-be parents to take the difficult call on whether to keep their baby or to abort it.

"...the lack of legal approval moves abortion to the underground (illegal manner) and they are done in unhygienic conditions by untrained persons, thus putting thousands of women at risk," read the plea.

It also demanded empowering women with sexual rights, legal protection against sex crimes and sex choices both for their own interest and for the sake of reducing the fertility rate as a whole.

The plea said that abortion beyond a period of 20 weeks was permitted only if continuing the pregnancy posed a substantial risk to the woman's life. But the law does not consider the factum of serious abnormalities suffered by the child in womb which are detected after the 20th week.

Sahni has cited Supreme Court judgments that a woman's right to privacy, dignity and bodily integrity should be respected.

He also mentioned many European countries including France, the UK and Italy and even Nepal which allow abortion after 20 weeks if foetal abnormalities were discovered.

He requested the court to hold that the right to abort the foetus was a fundamental right of the woman's body sovereignty and each woman has the sole right to make a decision about her body in the context of carrying on a pregnancy or to terminate the same, subject to checks as provided under the MTP Act or further checks, which may be provided.

Sahni also pleaded that unmarried women and widows were equally entitled to terminate a pregnancy under the MTP Act.