: Denying compensation to a woman for the maintenance and upbringing of a child born five years after sterilisation, the State Consumer Commission has held that the child so born ceased to be an unwanted child because if the woman was not interested in it, she could have terminated the pregnancy as the same is permitted under the law.
The complainant, a resident of Ghaziabad, underwent a sterilisation operation at Shanti Mukund Hospital here in March 2002 after giving birth to her third child.
However, five years later, she got pregnant again, after which she approached the District Consumer Disputes Redressal Forum seeking a compensation of Rs.5 lakh. She stated that it was due to the carelessness of the doctors at the hospital that she had conceived even after sterilisation.
‘No deficiency’
The hospital, however, maintained that there had been no deficiency during the operation. It said when the complainant had come to the hospital in 2007, she was told to undergo a urine test, but she neither undertook the same at the hospital nor did she bring any test report.
The District Forum then dismissed the complaint, following which the woman moved the State Commission.
The State Commission, while relying upon an apex court judgment, said, “The methods of sterilisation are not 100 per cent safe. In spite of an operation having been successfully performed, a sterilised woman can become pregnant due to natural causes.” The complaint was thereby dismissed.
