Right to having dignified last rites under article 21 of Indian Constitution: HC’s action for women skeleton lying in morgue for 3 years
Allahabad high court takes action after a report of a woman’s skeleton that was lying in the morgue for the last 3 years
Recently, the Allahabad High Court after receiving a news report regarding a women’s skeleton that was lying in the morgue for the last 3 years in Etawah, Uttar Pradesh directed the State Government to furnish a report on the situation. It was also pointed out by the court that even though a family claimed that the remains belonged to their missing daughter, there was no confirmation therefore of who the deceased body belonged to.
The court further ordered the police and the state to provide information regarding the following issues:
The time span within which the last rites of a body are conducted in a morgue and the reasons behind the hold-up.
If there are any regulations in place which require the state to perform the last rites of a person in a morgue within a specific period.
The directives of the investigation and the following timeline of events from when the body was placed in the morgue till the present time.
The instructions are to be encompassed in the case diary and the progress of the investigation which must include the samples and on the date on which they were extracted and forwarded to the Forensic Science Laboratory in Hyderabad for DNA Profiling and the date of the DNA Report.
The allusion was made from Justice Bhanot’s decision in the case of Sumpurnanand v. State of U.P. and 2 others, which stated that
“ Even though a person is dead, that does not mean that their rights have been extinguished. A deceased individual possesses the same rights to that of a living being. The law upholds them and the court elevated those right”
It was also emphasised that the right to reputation granted by article 21 of the Indian Constitution is applicable to even deceased individuals.
