Two-year-old girl’s mortal remains released from hospital, given to family: HC told

PTI, May 10, 2022, 4:58 PM IST

 New Delhi: The Delhi High Court was informed on Tuesday that the mortal remains of a two-year-old girl, who died in hospital after falling from the second floor of a building, have been released after conducting a post-mortem and handed over to her parents.

The development came following a direction given by the high court on Monday to the authorities to ensure that post-mortem of the child is conducted and the mortal remains are handed over to the family by Monday night itself.

The high court was hearing a plea filed by the toddler’s parents who said the child died at 8 AM on May 8 in Safdarjung Hospital which had not handed over the body to the family for last rites even till Monday after which the family approached the court.

“In view of the circumstances that the body of the deceased child has been released to the petitioner (parents); the counsel does not press the habeas corpus petition any further. The petition is disposed of accordingly,” a bench of Justices Siddharth Mridul and Rajnish Bhatnagar said.

On the submission of the parents’ counsel, the high court asked the police to give a copy of the discharge summary of the hospital and post-mortem report to the family.

The parents, represented through advocate Dhananjai Jain, said the child who belonged to a poor family fell from the second floor of a building where they reside and was taken to a private hospital on May 7 from where the doctors referred the minor to Safdarjung Hospital.

The family alleged negligence on the part of doctors of Safdarjung Hospital for not giving timely treatment to the child leading to her death.

“The child having extreme critical injuries was not even admitted to ICU. Not even physically examined until asked repeatedly. The child was left in the general ward with attendants in an unconscious state despite such critical injuries to which she succumbed shortly,” the plea said.

Besides the release of the body, the family had also sought to direct the police to lodge an FIR against a doctor at the Safdarjung Hospital for alleged sheer apathy and medical negligence leading to the death of the child.

On the prayer seeking to register FIR against the doctor, the court said it cannot be done in the present proceedings and granted liberty to the petitioner to initiate appropriate proceedings before the competent authority.

The high court, on Monday, had said that it would not allow any delay in such a matter and the body of the girl child, who died Sunday morning, shall be positively released by Monday night.

The body was kept at the mortuary of Safdarjung Hospital.