The methods of sterilisation, so far known to medical science, are not 100 per cent safe and if a sterilised woman conceives due to naturally and not due to negligence of the surgeon, she cannot claim compensation for maintenance and upbringing of such a child.
Also, if a woman underwent a free sterilisation operation (under the National Family Planning programme), she does not come under the category of ‘consumer’ as she did not pay for the services.
This verdict was held in the case of a woman from Ghaziabad who conceived her fifth child after undergoing a sterilisation operation at a primary health centre at her district in December 2003. Her plea for compensation has been dismissed by the National Consumer Disputes Redressal Commission.
The NCDRC also held that the woman could not explain “as to why after coming to know about the pregnancy, she did not opt for medical termination of pregnancy. More so as she already had four children and was suffering from acute physical weakness, illness and was not in a position to sustain a pregnancy”.
The woman, a mother of four, underwent the family planning operation by microscopic stitching. After some time she fell ill and few medical tests in March 2004 confirmed that she was nine weeks pregnant. She gave birth to the child on November 30, 2004.
She moved the District Consumer Disputes Redressal Forum, Ghaziabad seeking compensation of Rs.2.90 lakh. The doctors who conducted the operation and the in-charge of the health centre told the forum that as per medical literature, after a sterilisation operation, due to natural reasons, women may conceive but if the woman in question would have come back to them after coming to know about her pregnancy, the same would have been terminated within 20 weeks. They contended that it was due to the complainant’s carelessness that the child was born.
The District Forum, however, held the doctors concerned guilty of deficiency in services. In July 2011, it directed the then in-charge of the primary health centre to pay Rs.1 lakh as compensation to the woman.
The aggrieved doctor appealed before the State Commission, which set aside the order of the District Forum.
The NCDRC bench of Justice Ajit Bharihoke and Rekha Gupta held that the woman had failed to prove any negligence on the part of the doctors.
