“Hospital attendants having sex with dead bodies of young women", Karnataka HC orders CCTV monitoring of mortuaries

GamoAccu · Jun 3, 2023

The Karnataka High Court on Tuesday directed the Karnataka Government to ensure that CCTV cameras are installed in the mortuaries of all government and private hospitals in the state to prevent “offences against the dead bodies of women”. Six months’ time has been given to the Karnataka government to ensure that the directions are followed.

While hearing a case of murder and necrophilia, the Karnataka High Court division bench said, “It is brought to our notice that in most of the government and private hospitals where the dead bodies, especially of young women, are kept in the mortuary, the attendant who is appointed to guard them has sexual intercourse with the dead body.”

With this in mind, the Karnataka High Court said that it is high time for the state government to ensure that such crimes should not happen, thereby maintaining the dignity of the dead women.

“Unfortunately in India, there is no specific law against necrophilia”, the High Court division bench of Justice B Veerappa and Justice Venkatesh Naik stated, while calling upon the Centre to formulate a new law criminalising necrophilia in India.

In accordance with this, the high court has given the following directions to the state government:

The state government to ensure installation of CCTV cameras in the mortuaries of all the government and private hospitals in order to prevent any offence against the dead body of a woman, within 6 months from the date of the order.
The government should ensure that mortuary hygiene is maintained through regular mopping and cleaning of the mortuary so that the bodies are preserved in a proper, clean environment.
Every government and private hospital should maintain confidentiality of clinical records and must have a mechanism for guarding information related to the deceased, especially for cases that are stigmatized and socially criticized, such as that of HIV and suicidal cases.
The post mortem room should not come within the direct line of sight of the general public or visitors.
The staff in government and private hospitals must be sensitized about how to handle the dead body and how to deal with the attendants of the deceased with sensitivity.