The Delhi Health department has issued notices to all hospitals with forensic departments on norms to be followed while conducting autopsies, to “expedite the process and reduce the number of layers of decision-making involved”. For routine autopsies, investigating officers (IOs) can directly approach hospitals without going through the “police headquarters, Home department or Health department”, senior officials said. For cases which require the constitution of a medical board, IOs will have to direct the request through the police headquarters, which will approach the Home department. It, in turn, will communicate the request to the Health department. [related-post] According to the new order, in exceptional cases — which includes deaths in police custody or during suspected encounters — autopsies will be conducted only by medical boards. Describing these as cases of “extraordinary and sensitive nature”, the new rules mandate that the medical board should comprise of at least three doctors who should not be from the same medical institutions or teaching hospitals. If the IO requires a medical board instead of a single doctor to conduct an autopsy, the Health department will write to the heads of any of the five medical colleges — according to their jurisdiction — on receiving a request from the police or Home department. The board will be constituted with members only from the single hospital which has jurisdiction. In judicial custody deaths — deaths in jails or remand homes due to natural causes of illness, proven from records produced by doctors who treated the deceased — the IO will directly approach one of the five teaching hospitals designated to conduct autopsies. In case of deaths in judicial custody where an unnatural death is suspected including suicide or murder, the IO can directly approach the Health department to constitute a medical board. The order states that in these cases, the IO has to be sent to the Home department only “for information and records”. In deaths due to suspected medical negligence, the deputy or additional commissioner of police will have to “spell out sufficient and explicit grounds” to the Health department while recommending the constitution of a board. The department will then direct authorities of a single medical college or teaching institution to constitute the board. However, “due care will be taken not to assign the board to the same hospital or institution where the alleged medical negligence has taken place.” The new order also states that arrangements of videography and still photography of autopsy proceedings — which were recommended by the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) — will have to be arranged by the IOs.
