Prayagraj, Oct 29 (IANS): The Allahabad High Court has taken suo moto cognizance of a case of the skeletal remains of a woman lying in an Etawah morgue for the past three years and has directed the state government to provide detailed information on the matter.

A division bench comprising Chief Justice Pritinker Diwaker and Justice Ajay Bhanot in its order observed, “The newspaper report discloses that the skeletal remains of a woman are locked up in an Etawah morgue for the past three years. The identity of the body is disputed. A family has claimed that the body of the said deceased person is of their missing daughter -- Rita. The DNA report according to the newspaper does not give any conclusive opinion.”

Taking a serious note of it, the court directed the respondents -- state authorities -- as well as police authorities, to obtain detailed instructions disclosing the stand of the state on the following issues:

First, the time period in which the last rites of a body in a morgue are conducted as per practice and the cause for delay in this case and secondly, whether there was any law under which the state authorities are to perform last rites of a body in a morgue within a stipulated period of time.

Thirdly, the court sought details of the investigations and the timeline of events from the preservation of the body in the morgue till date shall be adverted to in the instructions.

The court also directed that the case diary and the status of the investigations shall also be revealed in the report.

“This will include the date on which the samples were extracted and sent to the Hyderabad-based Forensic Science Laboratory for DNA profiling and the date of the DNA report,” the court added.

Considering the importance of the matter, the court in its order dated October 26 appointed Nitin Sharma, a high court lawyer as amicus curiae to assist the court. The high court directed to put up the matter on October 31.