The Madras High Court on Thursday directed the State police as well as the father of Kallakurichi schoolgirl, whose death had sparked large-scale violence early this week, to produce on Friday an order passed by the Supreme Court with respect to the plea to include a doctor of his choice during re-postmortem.
Justice N. Sathish Kumar made it clear that he had already given reasons for non inclusion of a doctor of petitioner’s choice and ordered second post-mortem only with doctors handpicked by the court. Though he was not for modifying that order, the judge decided to take a final call after reading the Supreme Court directions.
It was the prosecution which mentioned the matter before the judge and informed him of the Supreme Court having rejected the plea of the girl’s father to include a doctor of his choice in the second post-mortem ordered by the court. The police sought a direction to her family to accept the body and perform final rites peacefully.
The judge was also informed that the second post-mortem was conducted on Tuesday itself with a team of doctors handpicked by the court and that neither the petitioner nor his counsel had participated in it despite being put on notice. The police asserted that every procedure, as directed by the court, was followed scrupulously.
On the other hand, advocate R. Sankarasubbu, representing the girl’s father, claimed that the notice was issued at the nick of the moment when the petitioner had already filed an appeal and approached the Supreme Court against an order passed by the High Court on Monday refusing to include a doctor of his choice in the re-postmortem.
Claiming that the appeal was heard on Thursday and that the Supreme Court had permitted the litigant to ventilate all his grievances before the High Court, the counsel pleaded with the court to consider the request for including a doctor of petitioner’s choice during re-postmortem since medical evidence was crucial to prove foul play in the death.
