Background: The maternal mortality ratio (MMR), the most sensitive indicator for social inequalities, varies dramatically between developed and developing countries. With declining MMR, the need for the search of a new indicator has motivated investigators to study hospital obstetrical morbidity data especially the new concept of severe maternal morbidity called __ampersandsignldquo;Maternal Near Miss (MNM)__ampersandsignrdquo; which was defined using WHO and / or Mantel et. al. criteria. Methodology: A hospital based cross sectional study was carried out at tertiary care regional referral hospital where selection of study participants was from the Obstetrics and Gynecology ward irrespective of the place of delivery to improve coverage. Data collection was done over a period of five months by one to one interview of patients after two days of admission to ensure survival after critical condition and then followed up till their discharge. Results: Out of 2238 admissions, 50 women with severe maternal morbidity were identified, of which, 46 women were classified according to WHO and / or Mantel et. al. criteria. While remaining 4 women (~10%) though treated as near miss, did not fit into either WHO or Mantel et. al. criteria and were analyzed separately. Conclusions: Study of factors leading to near miss events which would be factors related to maternal mortality also should be undertaken routinely to identify preventable ones and actions required for the same. Appropriate modifications to the WHO criteria, evolved and validated for local needs, are required as they currently underestimate near misses in India.