It is our privilege to share with you all
that the Prime Minister Office has recently asked the Law Commission of India to
study the laws related to Postmortem examination/ Autopsy (PM) in the country
and to give a comprehensive report covering all aspects of criminal laws so
that comprehensive amendments can be made in the various laws viz. Code of
Criminal Procedure, Indian Evidence Act etc. related to PM examination.
Details may be seen at http://indianexpress.com/article/india/india-news-india/law-commission-may-study-outdated-regulations-for-autopsy-2967767/ OR
This move comes on a detailed 82 page study
report of MGIMS entitled "Constitutional Validity of Police Officials
Existing Practice of Ordering Post-mortem Examination vis a vis 174 CrPC- A
Cause of Concern" that was submitted in Dec 2015 to Hon’ble Prime
Minister Shri Narendra Modi, and Shri Rajnath Singh- Union Home
Minister through Dr BH Tirpude sir (Prof & HOD). Please click
here to download full report.
Not amending the 117 year old law (1898) has
led to:
1.
Forcing untrained MBBS doctors to do postmortems.
2.
Unscientific, improper death investigation and incomplete PM reports- one
of the reasons for low conviction rate.
3.
Unnecessary postmortems.
4.
Relatives’ facing tremendous difficulties for getting copy of PM report.
5.
Collection of various organs and even fetuses of pregnant lady for keeping
in museum without any procedure.
Suggestions: Like other countries our
law should have following provisions:
a.
Autopsy, preferably to be done by forensic medicine expert.
b.
Police to decide whether to order dissection and extent of it in
consultation with doctor.
c.
Strict measures to avoid unnecessary dissection of dead bodies.
d.
Provide the copy of PM report to relatives by doctor free of cost etc.
Thank
you all.
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| Lokmat Daily News Paper |
