Modifying its earlier order, the Delhi High Court today allowed the authorities to dispose of unidentified dead bodies recovered in the wake of the riots in the North East area of the city two weeks after the date of publication of their names.
A Division Bench of Justices Vipin Sanghi and Rajneesh Bhattnagar also stated that the authorities shall call persons who have made complaints regarding disappearance of their kin etc. to facilitate identification of unidentified dead bodies.
The order was passed in a habeas corpus petition preferred by one Ansari Mohd Arif concerning the disappearance of one Hamza.
Earlier, the High Court had directed government hospitals in the city not to dispose of unidentified dead bodies till further orders.
The modification was made following the Delhi Police's submission that bodies could not be kept in mortuaries for an indefinite period of time.
As per the orders passed on March 5 and 6, the Delhi Police has been publishing the details of all the unidentified dead bodies that are lying in various hospital mortuaries. It has also been preserving DNA samples, it was submitted.
The post-mortem of the dead bodies are also being videographed.
During the course of the hearing, the Delhi Police submitted that it was in the process of searching the "naala" that flowed across the jurisdiction of several police stations, and that they may recover more bodies.
It was added that several unidentified dead bodies had already been identified.
The petitioner was represented by Advocates Raj Shekhar Rao, Surabhi Dhar, Burjis Shabir, Malvika Awasthi, Vinayak Mehrotra, Karthik Sundar.
The Delhi government was represented by Standing Counsel Rahul Mehra with Advocates Chaitanya Gosain and Divyank Tyagi.
