AIR 2000 SUPREME COURT 1888 ::2000 AIR SCW 1491 ::(2001) 1 MahLR 1 ::(2000) WLC(SC)CVL 407 ::(2001) 1 CivLJ 26 ::(2000) 3 Mad LJ 98 ::2000 (5) SCC 182 ::(2000) 2 RecCivR 739 ::(2000) 3 Scale 417 ::2000 All CJ 1 804 ::(2000) 2 ACJ 1188 ::(2000) 4 AllMR 247 (SC) ::(2000) 40 All LR 470 ::(2000) 2 AndhWR 54 ::(2000) 4 Bom CR 209 ::(2000) 3 All WC 1817 ::(2000) 1 CPJ 53 ::(2000) 3 Guj LR 2309 ::(2000) 2 Guj LH 513 ::2000 (3) KLT SN 10 (SC) ::(2001) 2 Mad LW 58 ::(2000) 2 Orissa LR 234 ::(2000) 3 Pat LJR 45 ::(2000) 2 Pun LR 790 ::(2001) 3 LandLR 347 ::(2000) 3 Supreme 520 ::(2000) 1 CurLJ(CCR) 618 ::(2000) 5 JT 34 (SC)

Supreme Court Of India

(From : Punjab and Haryana)*

Hon'ble Judge(s): S. Saghir Ahmad, D. P. Wadhwa , JJ

Tort - Medical negligence - Damages - State sponsored family planning programme - Unsuccessful sterilisation operation - Birth of 'unwanted child' attributable to negligence of doctor - Woman, sterilised, a poor labourer already having seven children - Held, entitled to claim full damages from State Govt. as well as doctor for bringing up child up to age of puberty - Statutory liability of parents to maintain child under Hindu Adoptions and Maintenance Act and Mohammeddan Law is no bar in claiming damages on account of tort. Hindu Adoptions and Maintenance Act (78 of 1956) , S.20, S.23— Criminal P.C. (2 of 1974) , S.125— In a country where the population is increasing by the tick of every second on the clock and the Government had taken up the family planning as an important programme for the implementation of which it had created mass awakening for the use of various devices including sterilisation operation, the doctor as also the State must be held responsible in damages if the sterilisation operation performed by him is a failure on account of his negligence, which is directly responsible for another birth in the family, creating additional economic burden on the person who had chosen to be operated upon for sterilisation. 'Negligence' is a 'tort'. Every Doctor who enters into the medical profession has a duty to act with a reasonable degree of care and ....