The Supreme Court on Thursday refused to entertain a plea of the father of Swathi murder case accused P. Ramkumar, who allegedly committed suicide in jail, to have an independent expert present at the time of his son's autopsy, saying this will become a "bad practice".
"We cannot allow you that. Tell us if you want an independent medical board... tell us if you want an independent person on the medical board. We are with you... But private doctors can never be allowed," Justice J.S. Khehar, at the head of a bench consisting of Justice Arun Mishra, observed.
The court asked advocates Kamini Jaiswal and S. Rajanikanth, counsel for Ramkumar's father R. Paramasivan, whether he had apprehensions if the doctors were biased or if they were not good enough or if the hospital was not good.
Ms. Jaiswal replied that the post mortem is being conducted by government doctors, who are under the State government, and they would be biased. The truth about his death — whether he committed suicide by biting into a live wire or whether he was a victim of custodial death inside the central jail — would never be known, they said.
Senior advocates C.A. Sundaram and Subramonium Prasad, appearing for the Tamil Nadu government along with advocate Yogesh Kanna, countered that the Single Judge of the Madras High Court had tried to assuage Mr. Paramasivan's apprehensions by adding one more doctor of the High Court's choice to the team of forensic doctors scheduled to conduct the autopsy before October 1.
Besides, Mr. Sundaram informed that a Division Bench of the High Court had allowed a fifth doctor from the AIIMS to participate in the autopsy.
To this, in an oblique reference to the controversy over the Sunanda Pushkar case, Ms. Jaiswal responded: "There have been instances in sensational cases of AIIMS doctors coming on record saying they were influenced. We want to avoid that situation by having a doctor of our choice present at the post mortem."
"What will your doctor do? He is just one man against five. No. This will become a bad practice," Justice Khehar observed, allowing the father to withdraw his petition.
Mr. Paramasivan approached the Supreme Court after the High Court refused the plea for an independent expert, but nevertheless stayed the autopsy till September 30 for the family to move the Supreme Court.
Justice N. Kirubikaran of the High Court had said that “no one, that too, a person, who lost his only son or has an apprehension regarding the cause of death of his son, should go empty handed, without any relief.” The High Court, had however, directed that the autopsy be conducted not later than on October 1.
Challenging the High Court order giving a deadline for the conduct of post mortem as “erroneous”, Mr. Paramasivan sought a stay of the High Court order till the Supreme Court finally decides his plea for an independent expert.
The petition referred to the 1995 circular of the National Human Rights Commission that had directed all the States and Union Territories to videograph autopsies in custodial death cases and send them to the Commission.
The petition quoted the Gokulraj verdict of the Madras High Court which, in June 2015, allowed the presence of a doctor of the family's choice.
Swathi, a software engineer, was hacked to death in broad daylight while waiting for a suburban train at the Nungambakkam railway station, in Chennai.
