In some good news for rape victims who fail to get justice, the Nagpur bench of the Bombay high court on Wednesday directed the Maharashtra government to circulate the newly formulated pro formas for a forensic medical exam on such victims to all its hospitals and police stations with a view to implement it.
A division bench comprising justices Bhushan Dharmadhikari and Pramod Kode asked the government to file a compliance report within eight weeks. TOI on Wednesday reported in detail about new pro formas submitted in the court by the government with many amendments suggested by Dr Indrajit Khandekar on whose study report, a PIL was filed.
The judges also asked the government to distribute newly created instruction manual, pro forma for rape accused examination, age estimation pro forma, requisition letter for chemical analysis and format for final opinion for the medical officers across all state hospitals and police stations.
Earlier, additional government pleader Bharati Dangare informed the court that replies on petitioners' remaining prayers would be submitted after eight weeks.
The court's directives came while hearing a plea filed by Child Welfare Committee (CWC) chairperson Dr Ranjana Pardhi and lawyer Vijay Patait on the basis of Dr Khandekar's report titled 'Pitiable and horrendous quality of forensic medical examination of sexually assaulted victims'.
The seven new pro formas submitted by the government and manual one, which are a dramatic shift from the earlier three-page page model, are quite detailed and include all 43 suggestions made by Dr Khandekar and CEHAT (a Mumbai-based NGO which had filed an intervention application).
It included specially drafted requisition letter to be sent to forensic science lab (FSL) by the doctor depicting the list of specimens along with purpose of analysis, provision for informed consent, and provision for forensic medical examination, even if victims report the matter on her own to hospital without any police report.
These pro formas were framed by an eight-member panel appointed by the government as per the court's orders under chairmanship of Dr SD Nandkar. It includes Dr SM Patil, chief surgeon of Nagpada Police Hospital, Dr Rekha Davar, head of obstetrics and gynaecology, and Dr Nikhil Datar, honorary gynaecologist with Cooper Hospital. The petitioners cited a Karnataka High Court verdict in a PIL between the state of Karnataka and Rangaswami where the court provided guidelines for the doctors to deal with complexities of such cases.
Dr Khandekar, working as assistant professor in department of forensic medicine at Sewagram's Mahatma Gandhi Institute of Medical Sciences (MGIMS), had made some shocking findings in his report and also pointed out many loopholes which led to acquittal of the accused many a times in rape cases. The petitioners while citing these findings prayed for uniform protocol, training of doctors and nurses.
It also demanded for the directions to both central and state governments to constitute training centres for providing periodical training to the doctors and nurses (as forensic courses) for special forensic medical examination of sexually assaulted victims as well as the accused, as per WHO guidelines.
A division bench comprising justices Bhushan Dharmadhikari and Pramod Kode asked the government to file a compliance report within eight weeks. TOI on Wednesday reported in detail about new pro formas submitted in the court by the government with many amendments suggested by Dr Indrajit Khandekar on whose study report, a PIL was filed.
The judges also asked the government to distribute newly created instruction manual, pro forma for rape accused examination, age estimation pro forma, requisition letter for chemical analysis and format for final opinion for the medical officers across all state hospitals and police stations.
Earlier, additional government pleader Bharati Dangare informed the court that replies on petitioners' remaining prayers would be submitted after eight weeks.
The court's directives came while hearing a plea filed by Child Welfare Committee (CWC) chairperson Dr Ranjana Pardhi and lawyer Vijay Patait on the basis of Dr Khandekar's report titled 'Pitiable and horrendous quality of forensic medical examination of sexually assaulted victims'.
The seven new pro formas submitted by the government and manual one, which are a dramatic shift from the earlier three-page page model, are quite detailed and include all 43 suggestions made by Dr Khandekar and CEHAT (a Mumbai-based NGO which had filed an intervention application).
It included specially drafted requisition letter to be sent to forensic science lab (FSL) by the doctor depicting the list of specimens along with purpose of analysis, provision for informed consent, and provision for forensic medical examination, even if victims report the matter on her own to hospital without any police report.
These pro formas were framed by an eight-member panel appointed by the government as per the court's orders under chairmanship of Dr SD Nandkar. It includes Dr SM Patil, chief surgeon of Nagpada Police Hospital, Dr Rekha Davar, head of obstetrics and gynaecology, and Dr Nikhil Datar, honorary gynaecologist with Cooper Hospital. The petitioners cited a Karnataka High Court verdict in a PIL between the state of Karnataka and Rangaswami where the court provided guidelines for the doctors to deal with complexities of such cases.
Dr Khandekar, working as assistant professor in department of forensic medicine at Sewagram's Mahatma Gandhi Institute of Medical Sciences (MGIMS), had made some shocking findings in his report and also pointed out many loopholes which led to acquittal of the accused many a times in rape cases. The petitioners while citing these findings prayed for uniform protocol, training of doctors and nurses.
It also demanded for the directions to both central and state governments to constitute training centres for providing periodical training to the doctors and nurses (as forensic courses) for special forensic medical examination of sexually assaulted victims as well as the accused, as per WHO guidelines.
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