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Medico-legal lawyer in India

Medical Jurisprudence: An Indian Law Perspective:
"Medicolegal" is the term, which incorporates the basics of two sister professions i.e. Medicine and Law. Everybody talks about the law but few, aside from lawyers, judges and law teachers, have more than the vaguest notion of what constitutes law. The average layman often has about as much accurate information about the law as he has about medicine-or life on Venus. And, unfortunately, two professional groups suffer from more ignorance of law and medicine than is good for them:

Those lawyers, who do not constantly deal with medical issues in their legal practice, know very little about the medical profession and its problems; physicians frequently comprehend too little about the law and how it affects them in the practice of their profession. Medico legal experts can provide a link between these two professions for their smooth & effective functioning in a scientific manner. The physician meets the law at every turn. He confronts it when, as the treating doctor, he is subpoenaed as a witness in a personal injury lawsuit; he meets it when his aid is sought as an expert in connection with a claim that another member of his profession has been negligent and when he is faced in his office or clinic by a narcotic addict, a man with a gunshot wound, or a young couple seeking a blood test. He is face-to-face with the law when he is required to render an aggravating array of governmental reports or to preserve physical evidence for the benefit of a law enforcement agency. The physician, in fact, finds a great deal of the law intensely irritating, often because he is not absolutely clear as to its purpose.

What Is Negligence
‘Negligence may be defined as breach of duty caused by the omission to do something which a reasonable man, guided by those considerations which ordinarily regulate the conduct of human affairs would do, or doing something which a prudent reasonable man would not do, actionable negligence consists in the neglect of the use of ordinary care or observing ordinary care and skill toward a person to whom the defendant owes a duty of observing ordinary care and skill’

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MTP Act- The Flag Bearer of Unconstitutionality: The right to life which is the most fundamental of all is also the most difficult to define. Certainly it cannot be confined to a guarantee against the taking away of life; it must have a wider application. By the term something more is meant than mere animal existence. The inhibition against its deprivation extends to all those limbs and faculties by which life is enjoyed...

Medico-Legal Significance Of Bruise:
A bruise is called a "Contusion". This is seen as a bluish coloured area on the surface of the skin to begin with. This is due to the rupture of capillaries

X Vs Z on AIDS:
On account of disclosure of the fact that the Appellant was H.I.V.(+) by the Hospital authorities without the express consent of the Appellant, the Appellants proposed marriage

Law And Medicine With Special Reference To Genetic Engineering And Gene Therapy:
A gene is a locatable region of genomic sequence, corresponding to a unit of inheritance, which is associated with regulatory regions, transcribed regions and/or other functional sequence regions

Are Phase I Clinical Trials of Foreign Drugs Permitted in India:
The Indian Clinical Research Outsourcing (CRO) industry is growing rapidly and brings with it attendant regulatory concerns

Scientific Defence Of Injuries (Abrasions):
It is very common to find abrasions in different types of medicolegal cases say Assaults, Rape, Strangulation etc

Medical Negligence:
the importance of the medical professionals in the society and the amount of sincerity they put in to their work. It also portrays the problems which they faced till date from the society in the name of Medical Negligence

Human Organs Transplantation:
An organ transplant is a surgical operation where a failing or damaged organ in the human body is removed and replaced with a new one. An organ is a mass of specialized cells and tissues that work together to perform a function in the body

Organ Transplantation Law In India:
organ transplantation, and the development of law on the same. It highlights the problems faced in the proper implementation of the organ transplantation program in the Indian scenario, such as poverty, lack of awareness, and loopholes in the law, like the 'affection clause'

Abortion laws in India:

# Abortion laws
Abortion (or miscarriage) may occur spontaneously, in which case it is of no interest to the criminal law; or it may be deliberately induced, when it is a serious crime.! For legal purposes, abortion means feticide: the intentional destruction of the fetus in the womb, or any untimely ~livery brought about with intent to cause the death of the fetus.

# When did abortion come to be recognized as proper on medical grounds?
In 1929 Parliament perceived the need to qualify the child destruction. statute by a provision for preserving the life of the mother, but crassly failed to add a similar exception to the abortion section In 1861 (when t GAP A was passed as a consolidating measure) medical science was r sufficiently advanced to make it safe to terminate pregnancy, so this P makes no exception for therapeutic (health) abortions.

# Where exactly is the line drawn between contraception and abortion?
Formerly it was thought that the vital point of time was fertilisation, the fusior of spermatozoon and ovum, but it is now realised (although the point as not come before the courts) that this position is not maintainable, and that conception for legal purposes must be dated at earliest from implantation.

# Where a pregnancy is terminated on the ground of risk of injury to health, how great must the risk be to justify the termination?
When the Abortion Bill came before the House of Lords, much attention was given to this question. The adjectives "serious," "grave" and "substantial" were considered, but their lordships finally adopted Lord Parker CJ's suggestion (moved in his absence by Lord Dilhorne, a strong opponent of relaxing the law), which now appears in the Act.

Narco Analysis:
Concept of Narco- Analysis, its process, its legal aspects and recent position in India. It also gives a short reference to other two popular but doubtful truth finding tests which also created a great deal of controversy in recent years

A Comparative Analysis Of Various Indian Legal Systems Regarding Medical Negligence: Criminal, Consumer Protection and Torts Laws:
With the awareness in the society and the people in general gathering consciousness about their rights, measures for damages in tort, civil suits and criminal proceedings are on the augment


Significance of Ligature Mark In Cases of Strangulation:
Very often we hear of deaths due to strangulation. Strangulation is a violent type of death due to asphyxia resulting from the constriction of neck by means of ligature or any other means where body is not suspended. This is also brought about by compressing the neck by means of foot, knee or any other solid article. In a form of Strangulation called? BANSDOLA ? the victim's neck is compressed between the two bamboos, one placed in front and the other behind the neck, the ends of which are fastened by the rope at the ends. 

In all these cases, a mark is left behind indicating the method used to strangulate the victim. The death occurs when the pressure applied is sufficient to obstruct the air passages and the blood vessels of the neck. Thus one thing is clear that a person cannot strangulate himself as he cannot exert that much pressure on himself because the person will become unconscious after applying little pressure on the neck and the pressure cannot be sustained thereafter.

The close examination of ligature mark and the state of structures in the neck region under the ligature mark provide vital clues as to the method applied for strangulating the victim. 

It is very common to find that a rope is twisted round the neck and pressure is applied by pulling both the ends of rope in proximity to each other. Thus such a method leaves behind a ligature mark encircling the neck once, twice or thrice (As the case may be) and is found all around the neck. This is circular but may be oblique if the victim is dragged after tying the rope. There may be an impression of the knot which may be single or multiple. The oblique ligature mark is also found in cases where the victim is strangled from behind in a sitting position and the force used is from backwards and upwards. Generally these ligatures are situated below the Thyroid cartilage in the neck region. 

On removing the ligature, the base of the groove will be found pale and their margins will be reddish and ecchymosed. If this is examined after some hours of death, this will be dry, hard and parchymentised. Sometimes there are abrasions and ecchymosis in the skin around, when a rope made of jute is used. The pattern of the rope is judged from the impression of the impact left at the site of ligature. Rope is a hard material and thus the impressions are clearly visible. In cases where soft material like dhoti or scarf has been used, sharp impressions are not seen but the effects of the application of pressure at the site are clearly found out. Sometimes they are invisible, if the material used is yielding in character like stocking or handkerchief. In some cases, the clue is obtained from the fibers of the material used which are found at the site.

In cases where stick or foot is used to strangle the victim, a bruise is found in the centre of the neck and the mark of the substance used is found. In case one stick in front and one behind the neck have been used, the marks of bamboo sticks in real dimensions will be present.

In the common forms of strangulating the victim as mentioned above, sufficient pressure is needed to cause death and thus changes are found in the structures below the skin where the ligature mark is found. These changes are seen on dissecting the neck region in the area of the ligature mark. When this examination is done by dissecting the neck, the extravasation of blood (Accumulation of blood) in the subcutaneous tissues (Tissues beneath) is seen under the ligature mark. This is due to the rupture of blood vessels of the area due to the pressure applied. Besides thus, the muscles of the neck in the area involved are also found lacerated (Torn). At times, the sheath of the Carotid artery (Main artery of the region) is found lacerated and there is effusion (Collection) of blood in its walls. If the force has effected the Hyoid bone, it is found fractured but when present, this is taken to be the surest sign of death due to strangulation. Similarly, the
cornua of the Thyroid cartilage may be found fractured.

Medicolegally, to say that the ligature mark has been caused due to strangulation, it may be kept in mind that the soft ligatures like dhoti, silk and scarf may not produce any mark. Sometimes similar marks may be produced by wearing a collar or band in the neck loosely and in decomposed bodies due to pressure of gases, in the region. They may give a picture to look like a ligature mark due to strangulation. So along with the ligature mark which may be circular round the neck presenting ecchymosis at its basewith parchmentisation ,with the lapse of time, the effects of violence must be present in the underlying tissues like rupture of muscles and blood vessels as well as accumulation of blood underneath, besides other characteristic signs of strangulation in body. If the pressure applied has been great, there will be fracture of Hyoid bone at a particular site, which is considered as the surest sign of strangulation by some authorities.

A tip to advocates for defence in a case of strangulation :-
The scientific defence in case of strangulation centres round the postmortem report itself. The advocate should look into the findings mentioned in the report and compare them with the findings which should be found in a case of strangulation (Particularly the description of ligature mark and injuries to the deeper tissues as indicated in the article ) . The difference, if any, will be of help in defence . In case of doubt, advocate should consult a medicolegal expert.

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Bare Acts of India:

# Criminal procedure Code of 1973
# The Foreign Marriage Act, 1969
# Transfer of Property Act 1882
# Muslim Personal Law (Shariat) Application Act, 1937
# Indian Penal Code,1860