HC move on postmortem houses in district hospitals

Patna: The Patna high court on Tuesday sought to know from the state government when it shall make arrangements to establish postmortem houses on the premises of government hospitals in all the districts of Bihar.

A division bench of Justice V N Sinha and Justice P K Jha sought the government’s reply while hearing a PIL filed by one Farida Parveen. The petition complained a postmortem house was situated in a densely populated area in Jamui district. Petitioner’s counsel Ashutosh Ranjan Pandey made the submission before the court that corpses after the postmortem were left to decompose.

The state counsel submitted before the court a sum of Rs 69 lakh has been granted to each district for the maintenance and renovation of postmortem houses of government hospitals.

Since the autopsy is performed in open in the Jamui postmortem house, it leaves a bad impact on the residents. Also, the area is surrounded by religious places and, as such, the postmortem there defiles the piety of the place, the petition submitted and added often dogs and other animals drag the corpse out of the room and feed on them.

Pandey had informed the court earlier that the residents of the area made representations before the CM and the health minister for the removal of the postmortem room. When nothing happened, they approached the human rights commission and the health department, but to no avail. The petitioner has sought the relocation of the postmortem room to the premises of the civil hospital.

Courtesy: TNN