Delhi HC directs Safdarjung Hospital to perform plastic surgery on acid attack victim

The court passed the order after it was informed by the Delhi government standing counsel Zubeda Begum that corrective plastic surgery is carried out at Lok Nayak Jai Prakash Narayan, Safdarjung and Ram Manohar Lohia hospitals in Delhi.

The court was hearing the plea of the acid attack victim who had said that while she had been provided Rs five lakhs as compensation, the amount was not sufficient to meet the cost of the plastic surgery she required as the same was performed only at big private hospitals.

It was also of the view that private hospitals can’t be asked to perform the surgery as “that is not the scope of the present proceedings”.

According to her plea, she was attacked by two men on a motorcycle as she was walking back from work to her home in East Delhi in August last year.

The men had suddenly accosted her and before she could figure out what was happening, one of them had flung a bottle of acid on her face, her petition has said.

She had later found out that one of her relatives had hired the two men for attacking her as she had spurned his advances and refused a marriage proposal from him who was 32-years-old, her petition has said.

She had moved the High Court seeking directions to the Delhi government to pay her the compensation as per the Supreme Court’s order of July 18, 2013, wherein it was held that acid attack victims shall be paid Rs five lakhs.