Kidney theft and SC Ruliing

Kidney removed in postmortem, HC awards Rs 10L compensation

New Delhi: The Delhi High Court on Monday awarded Rs ten lakh in compensation to a woman whose husband's kidney was illegally removed during his postmortem.

The removal of kidney from the deceased's body came to light when a second postmortem was conducted on the plea of the wife of the deceased. After going through both reports, the court found that in first postmortem report the doctor had mentioned that only a portion of kidney was taken from the body for chemical examination while the second report said the left kidney was missing.

"The doctor who conducted postmortem on the dead body of a person is expected to be a fair person as full faith is reposed on him by the family members. This faith is shattered by such instances where an organ is totally removed by the doctor who conducted the postmortem," Justice Aruna Suresh said while directing the Centre to pay compensation.

The Bench passed the order on a petition filed by the wife of deceased Ajai Kumar, an armyman, seeking a fresh investigation into the death of her husband who had allegedly
committed suicide in Jammu and Kashmir.

"I find it a fit case where the Respondent(government) should compensate the petitioner for their own wrongs committed while conducting postmortem on the body of the
deceased. Respondents are directed to pay Rs 10 lakh as damages/compensation to the petitioner within three months," the court said.