Judge tells coroners to expedite processing death certificates

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 29 December 2004, 13:56 GMT]
Vavuniya district Judge Mr M Ilancheliyan Wednesday directed the coroners from Vavuniya, Mullaitivu and Kilinochchi districts to expeditiously process the identification details of those whose bodies have been identified in the aftermath of the tsunami incident, and to issue the death certificates to the relatives without any delay, legal sources from Vavuniya said.

The Judge gave the orders to Vavuniya Head of Police Criminal Division, Alfred Hettiyarachchi, Health Director Vavuniya General Hospital, Dr P Sathyalingam and Vavuniya district chief Coroner, S Rajalingam. The orders will be carried through the Government Agents of Mullaitivu, Kilinochchi and Vavuniya districts to the coroners of each of the districts, legal sources said.

The Judge warned the officials that care must be taken to record the details of the deceased so that opportunity for relatives getting mired in legal complexities at a future date is minimized.

Judge also told the officials to avoid using valuable medical practioners and doctors' time in performing postmortem examinations for the hundreds of cases of death by drowning.