Role of medical science in criminal law

Man is a social and rational animal. He has throughout his evolution has tried to improve upon everything he has laid his hands upon, anything which he has thought and everything he has invented or discovered. The special faculty, which has been blessed on the man and which inspires a person to channelize all his energies to reach the destination of perfection in his life is ‘power to think’. The process of thinking gives birth to self-analysation as well as to the factors of coherence amongst various individuals. As for such reasons I clustered my thoughts under heading “role of medical science in criminal administration”. The topic is no doubt very vast and interesting but altogether it is very important for lawyers to discuss as they come across many crimes and investigations of such crimes where indulgence of medical science is unavoidable.

The triumph of medical science is seen everywhere in the way of justice and administration of justice whether it is civil or criminal. According to the great social and political thinker Bertrand Russel-“Science has changed the face of administration of justice. It has spanned the skies of evidence, measured the truthfulness of witnesses and wrested from the criminals many hidden realities”. Elaborately I would like to mention that a step in of medical science in the periphery of criminal administration extended the frontiers of our knowledge in various ways and directions. As regard the criminal administration the scope and ambit of medical science is not only limited to human body, medicines and other psychological phenomenon but also extended to the chemical innovations, investigations, technical analysis, new methodologies etc. Therefore, scientific outlook is not a fixed thing. It is somewhat like a growing process made up of many manual and mental operations leading formulation of findings, testing and using of the answers to the questions worth asking, can be correctly answered in criminal trial and in investigations of criminal cases. For lawyer dealing in criminal matters it is very eminent and desirable that he must possess the scientific knowledge in various spheres relevant in his case.

Criminal administration can be defined as the pedigree of process and work policies like trials, investigations, and enquiries put in to evade the crimes from the society. As a matter of fact, scope of criminal administration is not only limited to human beings but also to dumb animals and sometimes even to non-living things. Impact of medical science is like a silver lining in the dark clouds of crimes.

Penetration of medical science can be traced from the introduction of Article 21, Article39, Article 48A, and Article 51A in the constitution of India where right to health and medical care has been granted as fundamental rights and duties to the people at large. Article 21 is protection of life and personal liberty, Article 39(e) is that health and strength of workers, men and women, children of tender age are not abused and that citizens are not forced by economic necessity to enter into vocations unsuited to their age or strength, Article 39(f) is for children and youth to enjoy opportunities, facilities to develop in healthy manner, Article 48A deals with protection and improvement of environment and safeguarding forests and wildlife, Article 51A (h) is to develop the scientific temper

Creeping into the deep roots of criminological and penelogical theories of criminal administration, medical science and scientific assistance have become unavoidable and undeductable part of criminal procedure code1973and of Indian penal code 1860. For instance, under Chapter XII of Cr.P.C. where police and magistrates has given powers to investigate through S174, S175 and S176 which afford a complete and autonomous code in itself for the purpose of inquiries in cases of suicide, accidental, suspicious, violent, sudden or unnatural deaths with the aid and assistance of medical examinations, analysis and practitioner’s report. Not only this, Section 291 of Cr.P.C. allows the examination of a civil surgeon taken and duly attested by a magistrate to be given in evidence in any inquiry, trial or other proceedings before a court. It does not in any way preclude the court from calling the civil surgeon and examining him. This was as a whole eminently expressed in ‘Bharosey’s case’ of 1946 22 luck. The same was more elevatedly described in the case of ‘Hadi Kirsani’ as in 1966 Ori pg.21, where it was held that medical officer must be call upon to give evidence on matters which have a bearing on the question to be decided by the court and injury reports and post-mortem report is held to be admissible and relevant where such medical officer or Doctor is died or unavailable for examination in the court. Section 293 Cr.P.C. makes provisions for accepting in evidence reports made by certain Government scientific experts. It applies to the reports of chemical examiner and astt. Chemical examiner. Supreme court held in a case under Prevention of food adulteration act 1954 that accused had a right to call Public analyst to be examined and cross-examined and the fact that the certificate of Director of central laboratory supersedes the report of the public analyst is conclusive and final. It was so held in the case of ‘Ramdayal vs. Municipal Corporation of Delhi’ AIR1970 SC366.

It will never be an exaggeration to say that due to such unavoidable assistance of medical science in criminology, the penelogical offences are comfortably be catagorised into different heads in the Indian penal code. This catagorisation is based on heinous nature, gravity, intensity and mode of criminal act done, which are nothing but a medical concept and scientific study of an act. As for instance Chapter XIV relates of offences affecting public health, safety, decency and morals- Section 268- Public nuisances; section 269- Negligent act to spread infection of disease dangerous to life; Section 272- Adulteration of food or drink intended to sale; Section 274-Adultery of drugs. Further in Penal code, in Chapter XVI there are offences which affects the human body, therein the different kinds and modes of deaths are described as in Section 299-culpable homicide; Section 300-murder; Section 301- culpable homicide by causing death of person other then whose death was intended; Section 304A-death by negligence; Section304B dowry death; Section312- causing miscarriage and injuries to unborn child, of exposure of infants and of concealments of birth; Sections 349 and 350;Sections 363, 366 and others related to kidnapping and abduction; offences under Sections 375-377. Moreover classification of injuries and hurt is also given in Section 319 that is of simple hurt and Section 320 of grievous hurt. Thus, the whole profile of Penal code is base on the medical analysis, reports, technical assistance and scientific knowledge, which facilitate the task of courts to search and investigate the crime.

   Now the cardinal question to determine is- ‘where does medical science stands in the evidentiary value in the criminal administration?’ For that in Indian evidence Act 1872, section 45, opinion of experts are accepted to be relevant when the court has to form an opinion on the point of foreign law, or of science or of art, or as to identify the handwriting or the finger impressions. The courts have been accustomed to act on the opinion of experts from early times. The reasons are obvious, there are matters, which requires professional or specialized knowledge, which the court may not possess and may therefore rely on those who possess it. For example, when court has to determine the reasons of the shipwreck or an air crash, there may be many technical causes behind it as in the remarkable case of ‘Folokes vs chadd’ and therefore the courts will need the assistance of technicians, they being better acquainted with such causes. Similarly there are numerous cases which are the milestones proving the evidentiary value of clinical, pathological, handwriting experts reports, ossification test reports, test report of carbon-14-dating FSL reports etc. Section 46 of Evidence Act further quotes that facts, not otherwise relevant, if they support or are inconsistent with the opinion of the experts are relevant. Banerjee.J. of the Supreme court observed in ‘State of Haryana vs Ramsingh’ (2002) 1 Supreme 130 – “while it is true that a post-mortem report by itself is not a substantive piece of evidence, the evidence of the doctor conducting the post-mortem can by no reason be described to be insignificant. The significance of the evidence of the doctor vis-à-vis the injuries appearing on the body of the deceased person and likely use of weapon therefore could not be ignored and it would be the prosecutor’s duty and obligation to have the corroborative evidence available on the record from other prosecution witnesses”.

After mentioning provisions and clauses of the constitution, criminal procedure code, penal code and Evidence Act, I will not lead behind in mentioning certain Acts like-

Consumer Protection Act

Prevention of Food Adulteration Act 1954

Cigarettes and other Tobacco products (Prohibition) Act 2003

Biological Diversity Act 2002

Information Technology Act 2002

Wildlife Prevention (Amendment) Act 2002

Pre-natal diagnostic Technique (Regulation and Prevention of misuse) Amendment Act 2002

Drugs Control Act 2002

MTP Act  

All such Acts are so intertwined with and so telescoped into the field of medical science that it will not be wrong to say that these are the products of development in the field of medical science.

I think, Criminal administration is still lagging behind and is still untouched to the styles and new methodologies of medical science, which may prove fruitful to investigate crime, thus criminal administration has yet to enlarge its scope and ambit to make pace with everyday changing phenomena of medical science.

I would like to conclude with the quote of Dr. Thomas Henry as in his Famous book ‘Crimes and Science’- 

“The method of medical or scientific investigation is nothing but the expression of the necessary mode of working of the human mind. It is simply the mode in which all phenomena are stored out, rendered precise and exact. Scientific investigation in other words, aims at systemized accurate and verifiable knowledge needed to discover the truth, reality in a crime investigation. Such truths and reality will be eternal imperishable and unchanging.”   

By: Namrata Shrey Advocate (B.A., LL.B.)

Practicing in Rajasthan High Court, Jaipur Bench, Jaipur.