U.U. Lalit JUDGMENT
Madan B. Lokur, J.
1. This public interest petition raises very important issues concerning the entire range of conduct and management, under the auspices of State Governments, of sterilization procedures wherein women and occasionally men are sterilized in camps or in accredited centres. The issues raised also include pre-operation procedures and post-operative care or lack of it. A sterilization surgery does not appear to be complicated and yet several deaths have taken place across the country over the years. Undoubtedly, this needs looking into by the Government of India and the State Governments and remedial and corrective steps need to be taken. Persons who are negligent in the performance of their duties must be held accountable and the victims and their family provided for. It is time that women and men are treated with respect and dignity and not as mere statistics in the sterilization program.
2. The Petitioner Devika Biswas is a public spirited individual of Araria district in Bihar. She is a health rights activist with extensive professional experience in the development and health sectors. She has worked in Uttar Pradesh, Delhi, Jharkhand and Bihar in her capacity as a health rights activist. She has also been associated with the Integrated Child Development Scheme in Bihar and has published articles and books in her field of specialization.
3. Sometime in 2005 the issue of sterilization procedures for females and males under the Population Control and Family Planning program or the Public Health program of the Government of India came up for consideration before this Court in a petition filed by Ramakant Rai. The petition was substantially decided by this Court on 1st March 2005 by passing several directions. The directions are reported as Ramakant Rai (I) and Anr. v. Union of India and Ors. (2009) 16 SCC 565.
4. Pursuant to the directions given by this Court, the Government of India published a Quality Assurance Manual for Sterilization Services (in 2006); Standards for Female and Male Sterilization (in 2006); and Standard Operating Procedures for Sterilization Services in Camps (in 2008). These manuals really form the procedural and substantive basis for conducting sterilization procedures both of females and males in the country under the population control and family planning program or the public health program.
5. What seems to have provoked Devika Biswas in filing a writ petition Under Article 32 of the Constitution in this Court is that on 7th January 2012 as many as 53 women underwent a sterilization procedure in a camp in highly unsanitary conditions in Kaparfora Government Middle School, Kursakanta, Araria district in Bihar between 8 p.m. and 10 p.m. through a single surgeon. In fact, some of the broad issues concerning the sterilization camp held on 7th January 2012 as found on investigation by Devika Biswas, included an absence of pre-operative tests on the women or proposed patients; they were not given any counseling of any kind at all; they had no idea about the potential dangers and outcomes of the sterilization procedure; the sterilization procedures were carried out in a school and not in a government hospital or a private accredited hospital; running water was not available at the site; the sterilization procedures were carried out under torch light with the women being placed on a school desk; the surgeon did not have any gloves or at least did not change the gloves available with him; no emergency arrangements were made et........