Decent burial without delay a constitutional right, says Kerala HC

Kochi: Right to dignity and fair treatment is available to a person after death also and laws of procedure cannot be a hurdle to early burial of a body even it is a case of unnatural death, the Kerala High Court said on Thursday while directing the state to provide adequate infrastructure in five government medical colleges to carry out night

autopsies there.

The high court said that nowadays, in cases of unnatural death, bereaved family members as well as people's representatives -- like MLAs, Panchayath presidents and ward members -- can be seen queuing outside the police stations and hospitals for early conduct of inquests and post-mortems, respectively, for early release of the body so that they can pay their respects and carry out the last rites.

The court said the first hurdle in getting the body to the relatives was probably autopsy timings as "from time immemorial" post-mortems are conducted during daytime as there was a belief that such procedures can not

be done at night. The court also noted that in cases of unnatural death, even the inquest proceedings take time as "the police authorities will not reach immediately" and thereafter, an authorised or senior officer conducts it "after a long time".

It also said that the Health department had issued an order in 2015 for implementing 24 hours autopsy and accorded sanction for post-mortems at night in five Government Medical Colleges namely, Thiruvananthapuram, Alappuzha, Kottayam, Thrissur, and Kozhikode and also in the General Hospital Kasaragod as a pilot

project. The court said that after issuing the order in 2015, the government did not withdraw it but was even now saying that there were no infrastructure facilities for implementing night autopsy.

"This stand itself is surprising. What has the government been doing for the last six years," it asked.

Justice P V Kunikrishnan said it was the duty of the state to complete the legal formalities forthwith if an unnatural death happened and the officials of the government should hand over the body to the kith and kin of the deceased person immediately.

"It is part of the fundamental right of a person under Article 21 of the Constitution of India to live with dignity and the dignity includes not only the dignity of a person when he is alive but also the dignity following his death. Society should not be permitted to show any disgrace to the deceased.

"A decent burial of the dead body immediately after death without unnecessary delay in completing legal formalities is also a part of the constitutional right. The state cannot say that there is no adequate infrastructure or insufficient staff in the hospitals and there are financial difficulties to create such additional facilities for early completion of legal formalities in unnatural death cases," the court said.

The high court directed the state government, its Director of Health Services and its Health department to do the needful to "forthwith" implement the 2015 order and allow night autopsy at the five government medical colleges at Thiruvananthapuram, Alappuzha, Kottayam, Thrissur, and Kozhikode.

It also directed the state to ensure that adequate infrastructure as well as medical and paramedical staff is provided at the five government medical colleges as expeditiously as possible and at any rate, within 6 months from receipt of the judgement.

The court said medical experts also should understand that the financial condition of our state was not good.