LUCKNOW, March 21 -- The Lucknow bench of the Allahabad high court has held that a foetus aged over five months will be treated as a "person" in the eyes of law, and its death will warrant separate compensation.

The court clarified that the death of a foetus must be viewed as the loss of an independent life.

The order was passed by a single-judge bench of Justice Prashant Kumar while hearing a first appeal filed by Sukhnandan against a February 18, 2025 order of the Railway Claims Tribunal, Lucknow.

On September 2, 2018, a woman, Bhanmati, fell while boarding a train at Barabanki railway station. She later succumbed to her injuries during treatment. At the time, she was eight to nine months pregnant. The foetus also died in the acciden...