The government has made changes to the post-mortem protocols to allow for the procedure to be conducted after sunset. Apart from friends and relatives of the deceased, this new procedure also promotes organ donation and transplant as organs can be harvested in the stipulated time window after the procedure.

Given the rapid advancement and improvement in technology, especially the availability of required lighting and infrastructure required for post-mortem, performing nighttime post-mortem in hospitals is now feasible. The protocol stipulates that post-mortem for organ donation be taken up on priority and be conducted even after sunset at the hospitals which have the infrastructure for conducting such post-mortem regularly.

The fitness and adequacy of infrastructure etc. shall be assessed by the hospital in charge to ensure that there is no dilution of evidentiary value. It is also to be ensured by the facility that video recording of post-mortem shall be done for all post-mortem conducted in the night, to rule out any suspicion and preserved for future reference for Legal purposes.

However, cases under categories such as homicide, suicide, rape, decomposed bodies, suspected foul play should not be subjected to post-mortem during nighttime unless there is a law and order situation.

All concerned Ministries/Departments and all State Governments and Union Territories have been notified of the change in protocol.