Autopsy reports should be typed: Allahabad UP

Taking a serious note of illegible post-mortem reports prepared by doctors, the Lucknow bench of the Allahabad High Court has ordered that such reports should be in typed format, instead of handwritten ones so that they can be easily read. A single judge bench of Justice Brij Raj Singh observed: “The court is of the opinion that in future, post-mortem report or injury report prepared by doctors should be in a typed format and legible so that they can be read easily.” “Therefore, I direct the principal secretary, medical health and family welfare, government of UP, to issue a proper direction to all chief medical officers of districts that post-mortem report, as well as injury report, will be transcribed in typed format,” the court said. The court also directed the senior registrar of the high court to send a copy of the order to the principal secretary, medical health and family welfare, of the state government for necessary compliance. The court listed the case after two months for the next hearing to make sure of compliance with its order. The court passed the order while hearing a bail application of one Vishwanath of Hardoi, who is at present lodged in prison in a case of culpable homicide not amounting to murder under Section 304 of the Indian Penal Code. While hearing the petition, when the court enquired about injuries of the deceased, government lawyer Rajesh Kumar Singh apprised the court that the post-mortem report was illegible.”