No provision to deal with offence committed abraod: SC

New Delhi, Jan 4 (UNI) The Supreme Court today dismissed a petition of a woman seeking directions to authorities to carry out a post-mortem on her five-month-old daughter, who died in England more than seven years ago allegedly due to criminal negligence by doctors attending on her.

A bench comprising Chief Justice K G Balakrishnan and Justice R V Raveendran dismissed the petition on the grounds that since the incident took place in another country, this court had no jurisdiction to issue any such directive.

According to petitioner Sadhna Chowdhary, the baby, Sunaina, died of intense poisoning by the doctors in the UK on October 6, 2000 and the family members, including the parents, were not allowed to enter the hospital.

The Delhi High Court had dismissed the petition last year by holding that the CrPC had no provision to deal with an offence committed in a foreign country and right to know of the parents already stood satisfied by the investigation carried out in the UK.

The High Court also said no guidelines could be issued in this regard in the absence of any legislation to the effect as a post-mortem without any criminal investigation was not possible.

After the UK authorities directed the parents in February last year to dispose of the body within 28 days, petitioner Chowdhary brought the body to India.

After a lot of efforts, the Delhi government in August last year ordered the post-mortem to be carried out by Maulana Azad Medical College but the doctors at the hospital objected to it on the grounds of the presence of chemicals in the corpse which were used to preserve the baby's body.

UNI AKS/SC KD HT1704