HYDERABAD: A division bench of the Hyderabad High Court comprising Chief Justice TBN Radhakrishnan and Justice V Ramasubramanian on Tuesday took suo motu cognizance of the piling up of infant corpses at a government hospital’s morgue after TNIE brought it to light (Bodies of 80 stillborns rot away at Kakinada hospital’s mortuary, August 29).
The bodies were dumped together in a single compartment for over a month. On an average, 20 to 25 infant deaths take place in a week at the hospital. The court said the number of deaths was alarmingly high and enquired about the modality followed by the hospital in disposing of bodies.
A report prepared by a lower court judge on the instruction of the High Court stated that the bodies of the infants were not subjected to post mortem examination as they were abandoned by their parents.
Corpses of 20 babies are yet to be transported to the Kakinada municipal corporation for burying.
The hospital in-charge HOD has submitted a list of infant bodies and said burials are done once a week, but the lack of a vehicle had made it difficult to transport the bodies for the last four weeks.
The PIL is expected to come up for hearing on Tuesday.