On Monday, the Union Health Ministry revised the post-mortem protocols to allow for conducting the procedure after sunset.
Apart from aiding the family of the deceased, the revision was also aimed at promoting organ donation and transplant as organs could be harvested in the stipulated time window after the procedure, said the Ministry in a release.
As things stand, autopsies were performed before sunset, and only procedures that received special permission by the law enforcement agencies could be carried out at night. This, experts said, often led to organs of donors being unusable because the crucial hours in which they can be harvested and preserved were lost.
“In response to the multiple references that have been received by the Union health ministry from various sources, and in line with the government’s commitment to promote ease of living by reducing burden imposed due to compliance to government processes, changes have been made in the post-mortem protocols to allow for the procedure to be conducted after sunset effective from today,” the health ministry said in a statement.
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The government further said that fitness and adequacy of infrastructure etc., shall be assessed by the hospital-in-charge to ensure that there is no dilution of evidentiary value. It is also to be ensured by the facility that video recording of post-mortem shall be done for all post-mortem conducted in the night, to rule out any suspicion and preserved for future reference for Legal purposes.
However, cases under categories such as homicide, suicide, rape, decomposed bodies, suspected foul play should not be subjected for post-mortem during night time unless there is a law and order situation, it said.
The union health ministry said that all concerned Ministries/Departments and all State Governments and Union Territories have been notified of the change in protocol.
(With inputs from agencies)
