PIL questions male morgue workers conducting post-mortems at Mumbai hospitals

The petitioner said that he received information from the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation that post-mortems on female bodies were conducted by teams that consisted of doctors, sweepers and morgue attendants.

A Public Interest Litigation (PIL) filed in the Bombay high court (HC) has questioned the practice of male morgue attendants conducting post-mortems on female bodies in Mumbai’s public hospitals.

A Public Interest Litigation filed in the Bombay high court (HC) has questioned the practice of male morgue attendants conducting post-mortems on female bodies in Mumbai’s public hospitals. (HT File/Representational Image)

The petitioner, Adil Khatri, a lawyer, said that he received information from the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) that post-mortems on female bodies were conducted by teams that consisted of doctors, sweepers and morgue attendants. Khatri received the information after he filed an application under Right To Information (RTI) in November 2017, where he had asked if there were specific guidelines for conducting post-mortem of female bodies. “ Digital autopsy is an option. I hope the honourable court directs the BMC to conduct digital autopsy of female bodies, if they do not have enough women doctors to conduct the post mortem,” said Khatri. Khatri’s petition is expected to be taken up by the HC on Friday. HT had in November, 2017 reported about the demand raised by activists to have dead bodies of women brought for post-mortem at Mumbai’s public hospitals be handled by female attendants. According to the BMC, there are only two women forensic experts who conduct autopsies at the nine post-mortem centres in the city.

However, senior forensic officials said it was tough to get women doctors to work in the morgue. “There have been times when all the applicants have backed out even after the interview,” said Dr SM Patil, police surgeon.

Rais Shaikh, a municipal corporator, had in 2014 proposed that digital autopsy be carried out in hospitals - which was accepted by the BMC house. “We will soon come up with a digital autopsy centre in (BYL) Nair hospital,” said Shaikh.