The Uttar Pradesh government has issued new guidelines to streamline and expedite post-mortem procedures, mandating that all post-mortems be completed within four hours. Deputy Chief Minister Brajesh Pathak, who also oversees the health department, directed medical colleges and district health officials to ensure that autopsies are conducted promptly to minimize the distress of grieving families.
Following his instructions, Principal Secretary of the Health Department Partha Sarathi Sen Sharma released a revised post-mortem protocol. Under the new system, all post-mortems across the state must be carried out within a four-hour timeframe. In districts with a high volume of autopsies, Chief Medical Officers (CMOs) are responsible for deploying adequate medical personnel to meet the deadline.
The Deputy CM also clarified that post-mortems conducted after sunset must follow specific guidelines. All necessary documents and the deceased’s body should be sent to the post-mortem facility without delay. For night-time autopsies, the facilities must be equipped with 1000-watt lighting and other essential resources to enable round-the-clock operations.
However, he emphasized that certain sensitive cases such as suspected murders, suicides, sexual assaults, mutilated bodies, or deaths under suspicious circumstances should not be examined at night unless absolutely necessary. In such cases, autopsies may only be performed at night with explicit approval from the District Magistrate or an authorized officer.
The government also made it mandatory to videograph night-time post-mortems in cases involving deaths within the first 10 years of marriage, police custody or encounters, or under mysterious conditions. This videography must be conducted by a medical panel and funded through the Rogi Kalyan Samiti or other official resources, not by the deceased’s family.
Additionally, all post-mortem reports must be submitted online, and strict compliance with this requirement has been ordered.
To support these efforts, CMOs have been instructed to appoint one computer operator and two data entry operators at each post-mortem facility. Furthermore, two vehicles should be available in every district to transport bodies from hospitals to the post-mortem centers.
The revised guidelines also stress that in cases involving the death of a woman within the first 10 years of marriage, as well as in incidents of female crimes or rape, a woman doctor must be part of the post-mortem panel. DNA sampling is also mandated for unidentified bodies to assist in proper identification.
