Court acquits midwife after 15 years of trial

Press Trust of India / New Delhi June 21, 2012

A woman, facing trial for last 15 years for causing death by negligence to a pregnant woman while assisting her in childbirth, has been acquitted of the charges with the court saying that the offence cannot be presumed against her merely because she was not formally trained as midwife.

Metropolitan Magistrate Anuj Agarwal acquitted the woman taking into account the fact that due to low penetration of medical services in the country, midwives have been a help since "thousands of years."

"This court cannot be oblivious of the fact that since thousand of years, in our country children have been delivered with the help of local midwives like accused and this practice still prevails in larger part of country specially in rural areas. The apparent reason for the same is low penetration of medical services in most of the areas.

"Therefore, only because a death occurred in one such delivery, it cannot be presumed that the midwife who helped in such delivery was rash and negligent, simply for the reason that she was not medically qualified to do so," the court said.

"Even otherwise, the prosecution has failed to bring on record as to what special skills or qualifications are required for a person to act as a midwife," the court said while acquitting Delhi resident Premwati.

City resident Raju had lodged a complaint with the police in September 1996 that Premwati, who worked as a midwife "despite not being medically qualified," had helped his wife during the childbirth, but caused her death due to negligence.

He alleged that a part of placenta was retained in the body of his wife due to "mismanagement" by Premwati, leading to his wife's death. The police, however, had registered the FIR in the case in 1997.

http://www.business-standard.com/generalnews/news/court-acquits-midwife-after-15-yearstrial/23207/