The State government has decided to allow conduct of postmortem after sunset in line with the changes announced by the Union Health Ministry in postmortem protocols.

In addition to convenience to the families of the deceased, the new procedure would promote organ donation and transplant as organ could be harvested in the stipulated time window after the procedure.

The Director of Medical Education, in a circular issued on Saturday, however said the permission would be subject to certain conditions.

The hospital in-charge should assess the fitness and adequacy of the infrastructure for conduct of postmortem after sunset to ensure that there was no dilution in evidentiary value. The principal/superintendent should make necessary arrangements for the postmortem and it should be ensured by the hospital that video recording should be done for all postmortems conducted in the night to rule out any suspicion. These should be preserved for future reference for legal purposes.

Postmortem for organ donation should be taken up on priority and be conducted even after the sunset at hospitals which have infrastructure for conducting such postmortems on a regular basis. However, cases under categories like homicide, suicide, rape, decomposed bodies and suspected foul play should not be subjected for postmortem during night unless there is law and order situation involved.

The DME instructed the principals/superintendents to coordinate with forensic medicine departments of their respective institutions and take necessary measures.