In order to establish the identity of the dead to hand over unclaimed bodies to legal heirs, a Madurai-based advocate has filed a public interest litigation petition before the Madurai Bench of the Madras High Court seeking a direction for use of Aadhaar information and fingerprints in this regard.
In his petition, advocate S. Muthukumar said he was involved in various social activities that included cremation of unclaimed dead bodies. The Police Department was often finding it difficult to establish the identity of the deceased. The legal heirs too could not claim the dead bodies and faced hurdles in claiming insurance, he said. He pointed out that Aadhaar unique identification number was generated by submitting demographic and biometric information. It would be easy to identify the deceased persons using Aadhaar information, if the details were shared to the Police Department by the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI).
The Centre, State and the UIDAI should get together in this regard. Sharing information to the Police Department to ascertain the identity of the deceased would help uphold the dignity of the deceased. No prejudice would be caused to the secrecy of the information by sharing it with the Police Department, the petitioner said.
He sought a direction to the State to take steps to get Aadhaar information from the Centre by using fingerprints taken from dead bodies. A Division Bench of Justices N. Kirubakaran and B. Pugalendhi sought a response from the Centre and the State.
