Guidelines have been formulated for conducting medical examinations of remanded accused, the State government has informed the Kerala High Court.
The government made the submission when a contempt petition filed by Prathibha K. of Kannur Government District Hospital for not complying with the High Court directive to frame guidelines on medical examination of arrested persons came up for hearing.
According to the guidelines issued on October 31, when an arrested person is brought for mandatory medical examination at a government hospital, the police officer concerned shall, as early as possible, give request to the medical officer to carry out detailed examinations as per the proforma prescribed by the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) and the request should mention whether he/she is in judicial custody or police custody.
The remanded persons shall be taken before the medical officer, as far as possible, to take blood and other fluid samples. If the testing facilities are not available at the hospital, the medical officer concerned should inform the police of it on record and they may be referred to another hospital having the facilities.
The guidelines stipulated that the prison officers shall not insist on producing complete report based on the NHRC proforma since the test result may take its own time. Hence, the remanded person should be admitted in the prison with the mandatory medical report under 54 Cr.PC.
The government directed the Health Department to issue necessary orders to the medical officers of all government hospitals to subject the remanded accused to health check up as mandated by the NHRC order.
The test results of blood and other fluids may be made available to the prison authorities or police authorities as the case may be, by the medical officers concerned within 24 hours of the examination so that persons with communicable diseases may be quarantined and treated accordingly.
The guidelines mandated that prison authorities should take all efforts to keep the remanded persons separately till complete result of medical examination is available. The police concerned shall ensure that the remanded person does not come in physical contact with other arrested persons till the completion of medical examination.
