Court irked with doctors' handwriting, tells them to use computers

Peeved at the illegible handwriting of doctors on postmortem and other medical reports, a Delhi court has suggested some measures for saving time during judicial proceedings that includes preparation of such reports on computer.

"In most of the cases, the said writings in the Medico Legal Case(s)/postmortem reports are not at all legible and lot of time is consumed in deciphering the said writings. The  doctors have to first describe the contents written in the MLC(s) and postmortem reports, so that the same can be dictated and can be converted into legible words," additional sessions judge Sanjeev Aggarwal said.

The court suggested measures to be adopted by the doctors at all government hospitals and sent its order to the principal secretary Health, and Home, NCT government, for compliance.

"The MLCs, especially the postmortem reports be prepared by computer typing, rather than handwriting to save the time of the court, defence lawyers and the accused and to give better clarity to the accused persons, as to what is against them," the court said.

Among other measures, it said, forensic reports be given in a time bound manner, at least in serious cases. 

"The final opinion regarding the cause of death, by the autopsy surgeon is opined very late in most of the cases, due to delayed collection of FSL/chemical analysis report of viscera which results in grave injustice and violation of the fundamental rights of the accused and the victim during the trial," the court said

Noting that such reports at present are being prepared by very junior or trainee doctors resulting in incomplete information about the injury and the associated findings, the judge said these should not be prepared by the doctors who are not properly trained in forensic medicine. 

Any injury found on the body of the person including burns should be clearly illustrated on the sketch of the human body already printed on the back side of the proforma of the reports besides the colour changes (of the wound) for better appreciation of facts during the trial, it advised.

"Further, along with postmortem reports the injuries found on the body of deceased should also be illustrated on the sketch diagram of human body, including exit and entry wound of bullet injuries at least in burns and murder cases," the court said.