S.MANIKUMAR,J. - (1.) Instant public interest litigation has been filed for a Declaration, declaring G.O.(Ms).No.102, Health and Family Welfare (Z1) Department, dated 02.05.2013, cancelling G.O.(Ms).No.289, Health and Family Welfare Department, dated 13.06.1996, which permitted the practice of doing postmortem during night hours in respect of accident cases, issued by the respondent herein, as null and void, as the same is in arbitrary, illegal, capricious and in violation of Articles 14 and 21 of the Constitution of India and also against the principles of natural justice and consequently, to direct the respondent, to take necessary action to perform postmortem, during night hours also.
(2.) On 09.04.2019, we passed the following order:- "In the supporting affidavit, the petitioner has furnished the details of fatal accidents and fatalities occurred during 2017, according to type of vehicles, as hereunder. Types of Vehicles Total Accidents Fatalities Bus Govt: 2796 1029 Goods carriages 7373 2506 Four Wheelers 18748 3994 Two Wheelers 25393 5322 Others 5014 2001 Total 65562 16157 2. Contending inter alia that earlier, Government have issued G.O.(Ms)No.289 Health and Family Welfare Department dated 13.06.1996, whereby, a direction was given to all the Government Hospitals to perform postmortem during night hours also in the case of accidental deaths and subsequently withdrawn vide G.O.(Ms.) No.102, Health and Family Welfare (Z1) Department dated 02.05.2013, impugned in this writ petition, which according to the petitioner was a practical difficulty for the relatives to wait for the postmortem, unnecessary crowd outside the hospital and the only reason for not performing the postmortem during night hours is poor lighting facility and on the above averments, Mr.N.Ponraj, learned counsel for the petitioner insisted that the records in G.O.(Ms.) No.102, Health and Family Welfare (Z1) Department dated 02.05.2013, be called for by this Court.
(3.) Material on record discloses that earlier in 1996, Government have issued G.O.(Ms) No.289 Health and Family Welfare Department dated 13.06.1996, permitting postmortem to be performed during night hours in the case of deaths due to accident.;