The unborn child is a living person, the highest civil court of Mumbai has declared in an unprecedented verdict that has been welcomed by the Church in India, writes Anto Akkara.

The Consumer Court of Maharashtra State ruled that the United India Insurance Company Ltd had to pay out compensation for the unborn child of Switi Kotecha, who was seven months pregnant when she died in a car accident along with her husband and her father-in-law in 2004. The woman's mother-in-law, Kanta Kotecha, filed a claim for the couple, her husband and the unborn child. The insurance company had refused to pay the claim for the unborn child, but the court overruled the insurance company's decision.

The term "human foetus" implies an organism that is alive, so an unborn child is living and should be entitled to personhood, the court declared according to a Times of India report last week. Indian Consumer Courts settle customer-related grievances and disputes. "We are really happy about this and welcome it wholeheartedly," said Archbishop Oswald Gracias of Mumbai.