Kallakurichi violence: Madras high court permits re-postmortem of deceased girl without parents’ consent

CHENNAI: The Madras high court on Tuesday permitted authorities to proceed with the re-postmortem on the body of a Class XII girl, who was found dead in a private school in Kallakurichi, even if her parents refuse to cooperate.
Justice N Sathish Kumar passed the order in view of an urgent mention made by state public prosecutor Hasan Mohammad Jinnah that they could not locate the parents and that the doctors team appointed by the court were waiting to commence the autopsy.
He further informed the court that the Supreme Court had turned down a mention made by the father of the girl to stay the re-postmortem ordered by the HC and allow them to include a doctor of their choice in the team.
Recording the submissions, the court permitted the authorities to go ahead without waiting for the parents.
"If they come, one of them can be permitted to be present during the autopsy," the judge said.
On July 18, the high court ordered re-postmortem on a plea moved by father of the girl. The court constituted a panel of three government doctors and a retired forensic expert to perform the autopsy.
However, the court refused to permit the father to have a doctor of his choice in the panel.