Mr. Justice Sunil Kumar Garg, President—This complaint under Section 17 of the Consumer Protection Act, 1986 (hereinafter referred to as “the Act of 1986”) has been filed by the complainant on 1.7.2003 against the opposite party with the prayer that amount of Rs. 25 lacs be awarded to the complainant on account of medical negligence on the part of the opposite party.

2. The necessary facts giving rise to this complaint are as follows :

Smt. Nirmala Devi is the wife of the complainant, who used to indulge herself in the work of tailoring and because of doing that work, she had developed some problem in her spinal cord. The further case of the complainant was that for the treatment of spinal cord of his wife, he was advised to go All India Institute of Medical Sciences, New Delhi where problem of spinal cord was found and for that disease, operation was advised and the date of operation, which was given by All India Institute of Medical Sciences, was in the month of February, 2003.

The further case of the complainant was that since his wife was seriously ill, therefore, he approached the hospital of the opposite party, namely, National Institute of Medical Sciences, Jaipur. Accordi