Tiruvarur: A district consumer court here has ordered the district government maternity and children's hospital to pay a compensation of Rs 1.5 lakh to a woman who became pregnant despite undergoing sterilization surgery at the hospital in 2007.

The Chairman of the District Consumer Redressal forum Jayachandran and its members Rakesh and Sivasankari had passed the orders on the petition filed by one Jayasudha from the district.

The forum in its order said, "The petitioner became pregnant after the family planning operation and this is nothing but deficiency of service."

She should be paid a compensation of Rs 50,000 for the anguish caused to her owing to the pregnancy, Rs 50,000 for deficiency of service and Rs 5,000 towards case expenses, the forum said.

The management of the government maternity and children's hospital should pay the compensation with in a period of one month, it said.

The petitioner had submitted that she got married in 2004 and underwent family planning operation in May 2007 after having two children.

However, she claimed that the surgery was of no use and she got pregnant again and had to experience mental agony.

She had asked the court to issue directions to the hospital to pay a compensation of Rs Eight lakh and give an explanation for the failure of the operation.