LEGALEYE

  The essential requirement of medico-legal autopsy. Dr. Parikh in his book “Medical Jurisprudence and Toxicology”, 5 th Edition page 83, has stated that:             The   essential requirements of a medico-legal autopsy are :   (a) it should be performed by a registered medical practitioner preferably one with special training or experience in forensic medicine (forensic pathology), (b) the examination should be meticulous and complete; and one should routinely record all positive findings and important negative ones, e.g. absence of skull fracture in a case of head injury, or absence of defence injuries in case of struggle,  (c) all information must be preserved by defence injuries in case of struggle, (c) all information must be preserved by written records, sketches, relevant photographs, and radiographs when possible, (d) evidentiary material, when recovered, should provide a factual and objective me...

The medical officer  is authorized to conduct postmortem under a specific provision of law and is duly notified Punjab Government Notification No. 332, dated 3rd April, 1905. This Notification provides as under:- In exercise of the powers conferred by Section 174of the Criminal Procedure Code the Lieutenant Governor (Governor) is pleased to appoint the Medical Officer hereinafter named to conduct post-mortem examination under that Section and to rule that, except as provided in clauses 3 and 4, bodies for such examination hall be forwarded to authorized officer employed within the district where the case arises, to whom they can be brought by rail or otherwise in the shortest time. 1.       The authorized officers appointed under this notification are: (1)    all Civil Surgeons; (2)    all Medical Officers holding Collateral Civil Charges; (3)    all staff Surgeons; (4)    all Assistant Surgeons. ...