The SMH indicates that Khalsa was taken from the airport and bought before Garling J, who remanded her in the custody of the NSW Department of Corrective Services for failing to comply with a series of court orders.
Justice Garling said the two passports in Ms Khalsa's possession showed she had been to Malaysia, Myanmar, New Zealand and India in the past six months. He said she was a "serious flight risk" as documents she was carrying showed she had organised a house in New Zealand, future travel to Fiji and had withdrawn $35,000 in cash. If released, it was likely she would not turn up in court for an examination of her financial situation on Thursday, he said.Last year the NSW Supreme Court in Patterson v Khalsa (No.3) [2013] NSWSC 1331 ordered Khalsa to pay $6.6 million in damages following a civil claim brought by the mother of Will Patterson, a six-year-old Sydney boy who has quadriplegic cerebral palsy as a result of his home birth in November 2006. Garling J found she had been negligent in both recommending and carrying out the home birth. Khalsa did not defend the case brought against her by the Pattersons.
In Patterson v Khalsa (No 2) [2013] NSWSC 901 Garling J stated that
I would infer that she has intentionally, or deliberately, failed to comply with the Court's Order. Of course, that conclusion may be altered if she attends in the future or if an explanation is provided for her non-appearance. However, at the moment, and in the absence of any such appearance or explanation, there is no available view other than that she has intentionally failed to comply with the Order. In those circumstances, namely of deliberate or intentional defiance of a Court Order, the Court is left with no alternative but to invoke the power which it has under s 97 of the Civil Procedure Act 2005 ("the Act") to issue a warrant for her arrest.
That warrant, in accordance with the provisions of the Act, is sufficient authority for the Sheriff of New South Wales and all Officers therein, with the assistance of the New South Wales police force, as may be necessary, to arrest Ms Khalsa and detain her in custody pending a date and time fixed for appearance before the Court.A warrant was accordingly issued in mid year for Khalsa's arrest.
In Patterson v Khalsa [2013] NSWSC 336 Garling J stated
On 14 March 2013, which was the day the defendant's liability evidence was due, my Associate received a letter from the defendant, in which the following was stated:
"Please inform Justice Garling that I am withdrawing from these proceedings as I am unable to fund my defence. My previous solicitors have indicated that I was returning to Sydney on March 14th. This is not the case. My present situation is that I have no fixed address and minimal income with little to no prospects in the future, given my age of 68. Please use the above email address for any future contact."
There has been no other explanation from the defendant as to why she has not served her witness statements or remaining expert reports, nor is there any suggestion by her that she intends to rectify her present default in complying with all of the court directions.In October last year, Ms Khalsa was found guilty of professional misconduct and unsatisfactory professional conduct over a different home birth.
The Nursing and Midwifery Tribunal found in Health Care Complaints Commission v Akal Kaur Khalsa (No 1) [2013] NSWNMT 20 that she had failed to properly care for and manage the baby - who had a ruptured umbilical cord, persistent low temperature and could not feed - for more than 15 hours before it was admitted to Manly hospital in January 2011. The Tribunal also found that Khalsa failed to make proper clinical records and later submitted a second set of records that were false or misleading.
The SMH notes that Khalsa was in private practice as a midwife for over 34 years until March 2011 and worked as a casual nurse at the Royal Hospital for Women at Randwick for 10 years until October 2012.
A perspective is provided in 'Nurses, midwives and the requirement for "appropriate" professional indemnity insurance' by Kim Forrester in (2012) 19(4) Journal of Law and Medicine 678-684
