Forensic doctors are up in arms against the amendment effected last month reducing the number of professors in a forensic department to just two doctors.
What if scores of dead bodies lie in a mortuary for a long time awaiting post-mortem? This could be the situation if the recent Medical Council of India (MCA) amendment reducing the “required” strength of forensic doctors is implemented.
Forensic doctors are up in arms against the amendment effected last month reducing the number of professors in a forensic department to just two doctors. Many say this will affect work, especially that of post-mortem and handling sexual assault cases.
As per the amendment, for a teaching college with 100 admissions (most government colleges), only two staffers — one professor and an assistant or associate professor, are required.
The forensic doctors from teaching colleges attended a meeting in the forensic medicine department of Nair Hospital and expressed their fears about the amendment.
“The reduction of required staff will kill the subject. No student will dare to take up forensic medicine,” said Dr Shailesh Mohite, head of forensic medicine department, Nair Hospital.
The forensic doctors in the teaching medical, municipal and state hospitals not only teach but also conduct post-mortems, collect forensic evidence in burn cases, sexual assault cases, and medical negligence cases.
They also go to courts to give evidence. They undertake training for judiciary and police force, conduct research and manage other administrative demands.
“This amendment has been made for the sake of private teaching hospitals which do not do post-mortems,” said Dr Mohite.
Only about eight post-graduate students in the field pass out every year. “This will lead to incompetence in courts, particularly in the depositions given by doctors and eventually affect conviction rates,” said Dr Walter Vaz, head of forensic medicine department, KEM Hospital.
The police and the legal fraternity vouch for the importance of forensic doctors in the criminal justice system. “The forensic evidence is final and conclusive. The cause of death has to be told in the court on oath. If that is lacking, it will result in acquittal,” said senior public prosecutor, Rohini Salian.
Joint commissioner of police, crime, Himanshu Roy agreed and said, “A successful investigation depends on forensic evidence.”
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