The death of an accused in custody and an eye being gouged out from his body kept in the mortuary today led judges of the Delhi High Court to remark that at times they felt they should quit and go due to the "disgusting" manner in which the administration worked.
The court also said that on health issues, the government must "act fast" as not only the dead but even those alive were not receiving proper attention "as people both aged and small children are dying", especially due to dengue.
A bench of justices Badar Durrez Ahmed and Sanjeev Sachdeva made the remarks while dealing with a PIL initiated by the court after a murder accused died in custody and one of his eyes was found missing when his body was kept in the mortuary.
On the issue of poor state of mortuaries in the city, the court said it was "disgusting" how the bureaucracy and government machinery was working.
The judges also said that looking at the state of affairs, they sometimes felt like "resigning and running away" as no action was being taken despite earlier orders.
It made the observations after it was informed that the guidelines for dealing with bodies were not being followed. The court was perusing a fresh status report filed by amicus curiae Saqib with regard to the condition of mortuaries in the capital.
Referring to the pictures placed before it of rusted knives and hammers being used for post-mortem, it said that the bodies "cannot be butchered and hammered like this".
Directing the Delhi government to take immediate steps to rectify the situation, it said the post-mortem instruments should be immediately upgraded and replaced and listed the matter for further hearing on October 14.
It directed the police to fully comply with a 1989 standing order with regard to disposal of unclaimed bodies, after advocate Saqib said non-compliance was leading to piling up of bodies in the mortuaries, mostly ill-equipped to store them, resulting in many of them rotting.
Meanwhile, Delhi Government told the court that it has decided to award compensation of Rs 10 lakh in death cases under a new scheme started yesterday.
