The Nagpur bench of the Bombay High Court has directed the Maharashtra government to formulate a Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) for handling cases related to termination of pregnancy beyond 24 weeks.

A division bench of Chief Justice Devendra Kumar Upadhyaya and Justice Nitin Sambre in its order of April 5 noted that the amended Medical Termination of Pregnancy (MTP) Act permits termination of pregnancy beyond 24 weeks in cases of severe abnormalities in the foetus.

Under the amended provisions of the Act, the state government is required to constitute medical boards in each district which has the power and discretion to allow or deny termination of pregnancy beyond 24 weeks of gestation period.