JUDGMENT

S. Saghir Ahmad, J.-Leave granted.

2. Medical Negligence plays its game in strange ways. Sometimes it plays with life; sometimes it gifts an "Unwanted Child" as in the instant case where the respondent, a poor labourer woman, who already had many children and had opted for sterilisation, developed pregnancy and ultimately gave birth to a female child in spite of sterilisation operation which, obviously, had failed.

3. Smt. Santra, the victim of the medical negligence, filed a suit for recovery of Rs. 2 lakhs as damages for medical negligence, which was decreed for a sum of Rs. 54,000/- with interest at the rate of 12 per cent per annum from the date of institution of the suit till the payment of the decretal amount. Two appeals were filed against this decree in the court of District Judge, Gurgaon, which were disposed of by Addl. District Judge, Gurgaon, by a common judgment dated 10.5.1999. Both the appeals - one filed by the State of Haryana and the other by Smt. Santra were dismissed. The second appeal filed by the State of Haryana was summarily dismissed by the Punjab and Haryana High Court on 3.8.1999. It is in these circumstances that the present Special Leave Petition