The State has filed a petition before the Madurai Bench of the Madras High Court seeking a modification of an earlier order passed by the court with regard to appointment of scientific officers in medical college hospitals to enable the conduct of fair and proper autopsies.
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The State submitted that the court in 2020 had passed a series of guidelines on conducting post-mortems. One such direction was with regard to the appointment of scientific officers at all Government medical college hospitals in every district headquarters.
The court had directed that the qualification, duties and responsibilities of scientific officers shall be defined by the government with the assistance of a committee comprising experts in forensic science, criminology, medical examination and other fields.
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The State said that the expert committee had opined that appointment of scientific officers was not required at the Government medical college hospitals and the post of scientific officers was not mentioned in the staff requirements of National Medical Council.
Every district in Tamil Nadu has a Mobile Forensic Unit comprising a scientific officer who visits the scene of crime and assists police in the investigation of the case. They submit the report to the investigating officer.
Post-mortems were conducted without the assistance of scientific officers and the presence of a scientific officer was not necessary to conduct post-mortems. They have no practical training in anatomy, the State said.
The State submitted that other directions issued by the court with regard to conducting the post-mortems were being complied with.
A Division Bench of Justices S. S. Sundar and S. Srimathy adjourned the hearing by two weeks.