Haryana Consumer Disputes Redressal Commission has passed strictures against Consumer Disputes Redressal Forum,Fatehabad,for adopting a twisted approach in its effort to ensure that an eye surgeon at the local Civil Hospital was not held guilty of medical negligence. President of the Commission,Justice RS Madan,and the members of the Commission observed that it was a matter of great concern that despite voluminous evidence against the eye surgeon, the Forum did not pass an order against him,but only indicted the state of Haryana through the Collector,Fatehabad,and the Civil Surgeon of the district. The Commission noted that it was the eye surgeon who,through an act of medical negligence,damaged the cornea of the complainant by fixing a lens of bigger size in his left eye. The Commission observed that the District Forum,Fatehabad,had committed a greatest error by intentionally sparing the eye surgeon from his liability to pay compensation to the complainant. In a very indicting judgment,the Commission observed,It is often noticed that the District Consumer Fora write orders in such a manner so as to spare the real culprits and to award compensation against the performa respondents-opposite parties. Rajender Kumar Verma,a resident of Fatehabad,had initially filed a complaint in Consumer Forum,Fatehabad. He had stated that in 2006,his left eye was operated upon by the eye surgeon at Civil Hospital,Fatehabad. Verma was charged Rs 3,000 for the lens but no receipt was issued to him,since the lens was brought by the doctor from his own house. Verma later started suffering acute pain in his left eye. The eye surgeon,who had since left government service and joined a charitable hospital,told him that there was a swelling in the cornea,which would heal soon. The pain persisted,and Verma got his eye checked from AIIMS,New Delhi. There,the doctors told him that the cornea of his left eye had got damaged since the lens implanted was of very inferior quality,and a big size. Aggrieved,Verma filed a complaint in Consumer Forum,Fatehabad. The Forum,in its order,directed the state of Haryana through Collector,Fatehabad,and the Civil Surgeon,to pay Rs 5 lakh to Verma for impairment of vision in his left eye. The Collector and then Civil Surgeon appealed against the order in the Haryana Commission. Adjudicating the case,the Commission observed that since it was the eye surgeon who had wrongly implanted the lens,the compensation of Rs 5 lakh would be jointly paid by him,the Collector and the Civil Surgeon. The Commission added that even though the eye surgeon had left the government job,he would remain liable for his act of medical negligence.
