The Supreme Court has ordered that a doctor needs five years of experience to carry out sterilisation operations.
A bench comprising Justice Ruma Pal, Justice Arijit Pasayat and Justice C K Thakker was hearing a public interest petition filed by Ramakant Rai.
Stating that the state did not follow any norms for sterilisations, the court suggested that it formulate a qualification criterion to empanel doctors within four weeks.
The apex court also directed the Centre to list the compensation norms, which would be applicable in all the states.
However, till the scheme is formulated, the states would follow the Andhra Pradesh norms, where the state government has to pay Rs 1 lakh to the kin of a person who dies due to the operation.
The petitioner, through advocates Aparna Bhat and Ramesh Kumar, had filed the writ petition alleging widespread non-observance of the Centre's guidelines.
The court also directed that the doctors should maintain a checklist on all the particulars of the patient undergoing the operation.
"Each state shall maintain overall statistics giving a break-up of the number of sterilisations carried out, particulars of the procedure of operation, the age of the patients and the number of their children," it said.
