Chennai: The Chief Justice Bench of the High Court has set aside the order of a single judge directing that Rs. 3 lakh in compensation be paid to a woman who became pregnant after undergoing family planning surgery.
Rihana, the wife of Yasin from Ranipet district, already had three children. In 2018, she underwent family planning surgery at the Arcot Government Hospital. However, in 2021, Rihana became pregnant again and gave birth to a fourth child, a baby girl.
In this situation, since Rihanna’s husband died in 2023, she had filed a case in the Chennai High Court seeking an order directing the Tamil Nadu government to provide appropriate compensation, claiming that she became pregnant even after undergoing family planning surgery due to the negligence of the doctors, and that she is now suffering after losing her husband as well.
The single judge who heard this case had ordered that the Tamil Nadu government should pay Rs. 3 lakh as compensation to the petitioner, who became pregnant and gave birth to a fourth child even after undergoing family planning surgery, and that the government should bear the educational expenses of the fourth child. An appeal against this order of the single judge was filed in the Chennai High Court by the Health Department and the management of the Arcot Government Hospital.
It stated, ‘There is a 0.5 percent chance of failure in family planning surgery. Written consent was obtained from the petitioner before the surgery was performed on her. When the family planning surgery failed and she became pregnant again, even though we said we would remove it ourselves, the petitioner did not agree.
As per the government order, if family planning surgery fails, a government order has been issued to provide Rs. 0 thousand as compensation. Ignoring that, the single judge has ordered that Rs. 3 lakh should be paid as compensation. Therefore, the single judge’s order should be set aside,’ it was requested.
The bench, comprising Chief Justice S.A. Dharmadhikari and Justice G. Arulmurugan, who heard this case, said, ‘We can understand the single judge’s sympathy that, having lost her husband, the petitioner would find it difficult to raise all four children on her own. But this cannot be taken as negligence on the part of government doctors.
Since the government has ordered compensation of Rs. 60,000 in the event of failure of family planning treatment, the single judge’s order directing payment of Rs. 3 lakh as compensation and requiring the government to bear the educational expenses of the fourth child is not acceptable, and we therefore cancel it.
Furthermore, as per the government order, Rs. 60,000 must be paid to the petitioner within 4 weeks. If the petitioner wishes to seek additional compensation, they may approach the concerned civil court within 8 weeks and seek remedy,” they have granted permission and disposed of the case with this order.