Anti-Sterlite protests: Madras HC declines to modify order on preservation of bodies

The Madras High Court today declined to modify its order directing the Tamil Nadu government to preserve until further orders the bodies of those killed during the anti-Sterlite protest at Tuticorin on May 22.

A vacation bench of justices T Ravindran and P Velmurugan rejected the state government's plea for modifying the court's order and directed it to file its counter by May 30.

The government submitted no purpose would be served in preserving the bodies and cited opinion of experts that in case of injuries on bodies, it would lead to rapid decomposition even in cold storage.

Such cases of mass preservation would accelerate decomposition, the government said.

In his petition filed on behalf of the Home Secretary, the DGP, the district collector and the SP of Tuticorin, M Murugan, joint secretary Home (Strictly Confidential) department, submitted that a team of government doctors has already conducted and completed the post-mortem of two bodies.

He said the post-mortem was being conducted in accordance with the guidelines issued by the Supreme Court in the presence of necessary authorities and by competent doctors.

Experts have said the autopsy should be done as quickly as possible to prevent decomposition of the body leading to its impact on the post-mortem, he submitted.

Experts in Anatomy and Forensic Medicine have also stated that the body preserved by embalming or by any other chemical preservation will not benefit the purpose as it will produce colour changes and mask other signs, thus defeating the purpose of the preservation, Murugan said.

He said when the government and all concerned were earnestly working to bring the situation back to normal, keeping the bodies of unfortunate victims without disposal itself may become a focal point of unnecessary unrest.

Further, the relatives of two deceased persons on whom post-mortem has been completed, were insisting that the bodies be handed over to them. They have also issued consent letters in this regard.

In light of these circumstances, the bodies can be handed over to the relatives, he submitted.

If the bodies were embalmed and kept under preservation, there was every possibility of the public gatecrashing into the hospital and creating law and order problems.

When the modification plea came up, the counsel for petitioners submitted that no such plea for handing over of bodies was made by any relatives of the victims.

The court then adjourned the matter to May 30.

The bench had yesterday passed an interim order directing the authorities to preserve the bodies of those killed on May 22, until further orders.

The order was passed on a PIL from three advocates, who, among other things, sought an interim direction to authorities to appoint a team of private doctors to conduct re-postmortem with the process being recorded.

Violence broke out on May 22 during protest for the closure of Vedanta group's Sterlite Copper plant in Tuticorin over pollution concerns with police opening fire, resulting in the death of 10 people.

A man was also shot dead in police firing yesterday following fresh clashes between security personnel and locals.