Piling up unclaimed bodies in morgues worries Delhi HC

Worried over unclaimed corpses piling up in city morgues, some even for four months, the Delhi High Court has asked the authorities to streamline the process for their quick disposal.
"You (Delhi government and other agencies) will have to streamline the process for quick disposal of bodies from the mortuaries," a bench of Justices S Ravindra Bhat and Yogesh Khanna said.
The oral observation came when the bench was told that investigating officers (IO) have to pay from their pockets to cremate the unclaimed bodies.
It expressed concern over the "decades old" practice of the cops having to pay for such cremation.

The bench also indicated that the mortuaries should have some kind of standard with regard to cleanliness and other services.
"You will have to formulate a guideline after taking the views of all the stake holders," the bench said, adding that apart from government and hospital authorities, views of local bodies like the New Delhi Municipal Council, Municipal Corporations of Delhi and Delhi Cantonment Board should also be taken before formulating any guideline.

It asked the Delhi Chief Secretary to convene a meeting of all the concerned authorities and file a status report with regard to its outcome by the next hearing on July 27.

Meanwhile, the counsel for Delhi government submitted that it has filed its plan and timelines for implementing the recommendations and suggestions made by a court-appointed amicus curiae regarding the dignity of unidentified and other dead bodies.
The Delhi government's submission came in the backdrop of the bench's earlier observation that in the absence of any legislation, once all stakeholders come up with proposals, the court will step in and issue directions to streamline the process.
The court had also said that the problem was due to the lack of a proper system and added that since the Centre has decided not to proceed with a separate Coroners Act, it will issue directions till a legislation comes into place.

The court was hearing a public interest litigation (PIL) initiated by it after a murder accused died in custody and one of his eyes was found missing when his body was kept in the mortuary.
The court, in its earlier order, had sought to know the reasons for delay in disposal of such corpses after amicus curiae told the bench that some bodies have been lying in the morgues since August 2016 and were in a putrefied state.
It had asked the police to consider some manner of preservation of DNA samples of the bodies which are to be disposed of as unclaimed and unidentified for future reference.