MADURAI: Following shocking revelations of irregularities in performing postmortem examinations in the Government Rajaji Hospital (GRH) in Madurai, the Madurai Bench of Madras High Court directed the State government to follow the guidelines on autopsies as prescribed in the Tamil Nadu Medical Code and National Human Rights Commission (NHRC).
The litigant RM Arun Swaminathan, an advocate, alleged that the majority of the postmortem examination reports in the said hospital are being prepared by copy-pasting the reports of other deceased. He also alleged that the doctors neither go near the autopsy table nor report to duty; the autopsies are performed by mortuary attendants or sanitary workers.
The allegations were confirmed by two Scientific Officers -- K Loganathan and J Ramesh -- who filed a report pursuant to the directions of the court. The report had been filed after scrutinising materials, including registers, CCTV footage, postmortem-examination case sheets among others, which were seized by an advocate commissioner on April 15, 2019, from the hospital based on the court's directions.
Perusing the report, a Bench of justices N Kirubakaran and SS Sundar noted, "Out of the 178 autopsies performed by the GRH from April 1 to 15, 57 autopsies (including different cases like road accident, poisoning, and murder) gave the same findings; this showed that they were simply “copy-pasted'. The CCTV footage also showed that measurements were not taken in any of those bodies,” they added.
The judges pointed out that the manner of death was not mentioned in any of the autopsy reports. They also condemned the huge delay in the dispatch of autopsy reports from the hospitals to police stations and courts.
Adding that this is the reality not only in Madurai but across Tamil Nadu, they directed the State government to ensure that autopsy reports are dispatched the same day the examinations are performed and that the reports are prepared as per NHRC model. The government was directed to comply with similar directions issued by the court in 2008, by the end of February 2021.
The judges also told the government to implement a biometric attendance system in hospitals strictly. Autopsies should be videographed if the kin of the deceased request so, the judges stated. They also ordered the government to form a committee to fill the posts of Scientific Officers within six months. Further directions were issued to the government to adopt the Medical Legal Examination and Post-mortem Reports System (MedLeaPR) software for computer generated reports by January 1, 2021.
Noting that a burn-victim, Murugan from Sivaganga, was shifted to the GRH but died without treatment or recording of dying declaration, the judges directed the Health Secretary to depute a higher official to inquire as to who was responsible for the negligence.
