EXAMINATIONS OF LIVING

PERSON FOR MEDICO-LEGAL

PURPOSES

A PROJECT REPORT
Submitted to the

University of Rajasthan

Jaipur

FIVE YEAR LAW COLLEGE

(As per requirement of fifthth semester)

for the B.A.LLB.(HONS). Examination-

2010
Paper-IV (FORENSIC SCIENCE AND
CRIMINAL INVESTIGATION)

Under Supervision of Submitted by

Ms. RITUJA SHARMA AJIT YADAV

Faculty Lecturer B.A.,LL.B(Hons.)

University of Rajasthan V Semester (07)

FIVE YEAR LAW COLLEGE

 UNIVERSITY OF RAJASTHAN
JAIPUR
CERTIFICATE

This is to certify that AJIT YADAV , a student of B.A LL.B

(hons.) V Semester, Five Year Law College, Rajasthan University,

Jaipur has written this project entitled "EXAMINATIONS OF

LIVING PERSON FOR MEDICO-LEGAL PURPOSES" under my

supervision and guidance.

It is further certified that the candidate has done a sincere

efforts in this work on the topic mentioned above.

Ms. RITUJA SHARMA

Supervisor
 ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

I have written this presentation entitled

"EXAMINATIONS OF LIVING PERSON FOR MEDICO-LEGAL
PURPOSES " under the supervision of Ms. Rituja
Sharma, Faculty Lecturer, Five Year Law College,
University of Rajasthan, Jaipur.

I find no words to express my sense of gratitude

for Ms. Rituja Sharma, Faculty lecturer for
providing the necessary guidance and constant
encouragement at every step of her endeavour.
The pains taken by her in the scrutiny of the rough
draft as well his valuable suggestions to plug the
loopholes therein have not only helped immensely
in making this work see the light of the day, but
above all, have helped in developing an analytical
approach to this work.

I am grateful and thankful to Prof. (Mrs.) Mridul

Srivastava, Director of Five Year Law College,
University of Rajasthan, Jaipur for her cooperation
and guidance.
 Further I am grateful to my learned teachers for
their academic patronage and persistent
encouragement extended to me.

I am highly indebted to the office and Library

Staff of the Five Year Law College, University of
Rajasthan, Jaipur for the support and cooperation
extended by them from time to time.
I cannot conclude with recording my gratefulness
to my friends for the assistance received from
them in the preparation of this project for which I
am indebted to them.

Ajit Yadav.
B.A.,LLB.
(hons.)
V Semester
Roll No. 07
Five Year Law College
University of Rajasthan,
Jaipur
 CONTENTS

Sr.no. Topic Page no.

1. Certificate i

2. Acknowledgement ii

3. Introduction 1

4. Examination of living person 2

5. Prognosis, Life Isurance, Workmen’s 3

compensation
6. Industrial Insurance, Factories Act 4

7. Malingering, Drunkenness Examination 6

8. Drunkenness Certficate 7

9. Conclusion 8

Bibliography & webliography

 INTRODUCTION

A medical practitioner may have to examine a living person for various reasons other than
connected with the diagnosis and treatment of illness or disease. Often the examination of a
living person has to be carried out for medico-legal purposes. Examination may have to be done
for the benefit of the examinee or to his disadvantage, such as the examination of the accused
person. Regardless the examination should only be performed with the consent of the person to
be examined, since an enforced examination will be an assault. Only in exceptional
circumstances such as the examination of prisoners or in the armed services, can examination be
carried out without consent.

There are various reasons for the medico-legal examination on a living person. The
following are some such grounds :

1. The victims of assault, sexual offence, accidents require medical examination and a
report upon their conditions to commence legal processes.

2. Examination of persons suffered in industrial, traffic or other accidents and issuance of

wound certificate together with an opinion on prognosis, for the assessment of insurance
and compensation.

3. Medical examination is called for obtaining life insurance since the insurance company
needs an evaluation of the insurance risk of the applicant.

4. Examination of suspected malingerers and persons who claim that they could not come
for work since they suffer from some disability.
Examination of a living person :
The following guidelines must be kept in mind when the examination of any case is being
undertaken and especially when the report is being prepared.

Consent

In India, as in most countries, no examination of a patient or the victim of an assault may

be made without permission of the individual or parent or close relative in case of a
young person less than 12 years. However in India, as opposed to, for example UK, under
section 53 of Code of Criminal Procedure 1973, a person accused of a criminal offence
may be medically examined without his consent on the request of the police or at the
direction of the court.

History :

History as narrated by the patient himself or the accompanying any person with name and
address should be recorded. When the patient narrates himself, the question of soundness
does not arise. For instance, it should be recorded, alleged to have been assaulted by
known persons as narrated by the injured person. The medical practitioner should inquire
about the conditions leading to the illness, injury or other disability. Probing question
should be placed to rule out any false history. In the case of criminally accused persons,
the questions should be confined by to the events that caused the injuries. It is for the
police and prosecutors to decide about the admissibility of this history as evidence, but
the medical practitioner is expected to write down in his report anything which he thinks
is relevant; the question of admissibility of evidence is a matter for the legal authorities.
In sexual offences , the history is most important.

Clinical Examination :

Time and place of examination and two identification marks on the exposed parts of the
body should be recorded. If no identification marks could be made out, left thumb
impression coated with black ink should be taken on the accident register. In all cases, it
should be stated whether the patient is conscious and oriented. The medical practitioner
should record the abrasions, bruises, lacerations, healing injuries, old scars, fracture
deformities congenital defects. The size of the injuries should be measured in
centimeters. When there is no photograph, these detailed descriptions, aided by sketch,
are of great value at a later date when the case is being dealt by a court many months or
even years after the event.
In the case of forcible sexual intercourse, gait of victims whether painful or not should be
recorded.

The necessity of physical examination is decided on the basis of merits of each case. It
depends upon the type of injury, illness or disability range from mere palpation of some
fracture-deformity to more complicated diagnostic techniques.

Prognosis :

In several medico-legal issues, especially those involving compensation for accidents or

insurance matters, require the future effect of any disability. Therefore an opinion about
prognosis is often vital and may be the main reason for the examination being carried out
particularly so in civil matters.

Life Insurance :

While examining a person for obtaining life insurance, there is often a set pro forma
issued by life insurance companies which requests for height, weight, blood pressure,
pulse rate and urine analysis.

Workmen’s Compensation :

Registered medical practitioners are intimately associated with the determination of the
extent of physical disability entitling the disabled or his dependants to various amounts in
compensation depending upon the degree of disability, partial or total, as a result of
occupational injury or disease. The Workmen’s Compensation Act provides for medical
examination of the concerned workmen to determine the loss of physical capacity and if
the employer offers to him examined free of charge by qualified medical practitioner, the
workmen is obliged by law to submit to medical examination.
Industrial Insurance :

A registered medical practitioner is associated with the various benefits that industrial
insurance scheme provide such as sickness benefit, disablement benefit, dependent’s
benefit medical benefit and maternity benefit. Unlike commercial insurance scheme
where insurance is optional and the entire cost of insurance scheme is met by the
beneficiary, the scheme if industrial insurance is compulsory and cost is met on tripartite
basis, ie, by employers by the employees and the state.

Under the Industrial Insurance Law, insurance medical officers are appointed and no
medical certificate issued by a person other than an insurance medical officer is
acceptable and no other except an insurance medical officer is competent to medically
examine an insured person. The medical certificate is in prescribed form and there are
separate forms prescribed for first examination, intermediate examination and final
examination. The insurance medical officer should fill in such form as may be necessary
with utmost care and accuracy and without favour.

Factories Act :

Registered medical practitioners are appointed as certifying surgeons under the

Factories Act and other similar Acts like the Mines Act. Their duty to examine and
certify persons particularly the young persons, as defined in the Act. They are also
required to examine persons engaged in occupations which are declared under the Act to
be dangerous. They issue medical certificates certifying for work in prescribed form. This
certificate can be revoked by him. If he has been attending upon a person working in a
factory and suffering from a disease mentioned in the Schedule to the Act, he shall send a
report in writing to the chief inspector. Breach of this duty is punishable under the Act.
The Schedule of Notifiable Disease is reproduced below :

1. Lead poisoning, including poisoning by any preparation or compound of lead or their

sequelae.

2. Lead tetra-ethyl poisoning.

3. Phosphorous poisoning or its sequelea.

4. Mercury poisoning or its sequelea.

5. Arsenic poisoning or its sequelea.

6. Manganese poisoning or its sequelea.

7. Poisoning by nitrous fumes.

8. Carbon bysulphade poisoning.

9. Benzene poisoning, including poisoning by any of its homologues, hteir nitro or

amido derivatives or its sequelea.

10. Chrome ulceration or its sequelea.

11. Anthrax.

12. Silicosis.

13. Poisoning by halogens and halogen derivatives of the hydrocarbons or the aliphatric
series.

14. Pathological manifestations due to –

(a) Radium or other active substances;

(b) X-rays.

15. Primary epitheliomatous cancer of the skin.

16. Toxic anaemia.

17. Toxic jaundice due to poisonous substances.

Malingering (Feigned Diseaes) :

Malingering is a medical term that refers to fabricating or exaggerating the

symptoms of mental or physical disorders for a variety of "secondary gain" motives,
which may include financial compensation (often tied to fraud); avoiding school,
work or military service; obtaining drugs; getting lighter criminal sentences; or
simply to attract attention or sympathy. A common form of malingering in legal
procedure prosecution is sometimes referred to as fabricated mental illness or feigned
madness. The disorder remains separate from somatization disorders and factitious
disorders in which primary and secondary gain, such as the relief of anxiety or the
assumption of the "patient role", is the goal. The symptoms most commonly feigned
include those associated with mild head injury, fibromyalgia, chronic fatigue
syndrome, and chronic pain. Failure to detect actual cases of malingering imposes a
substantial economic burden on the health care system, and false attribution of
malingering imposes a substantial burden of suffering on a significant proportion of
the patient population.

Examination For Drunkenness :

An examination for drunkenness may be requested either for an assessment of the

general drunken state of person, in relation to disorderly conduct, or to some other
criminal behavior, but the most common way in which a doctor may become involved
is in evaluating the state of an allegedly drunken driver in relation to ability to drive a
motor vehicle.

In many countries, the practice of medical examination of such drunken drivers has
been abandoned in favour of blood or breath level of alcohol.\, mainly due to the
difficulties of assessing the ability of a person to drive under the influence of alcohol
and due to disputes between different medical examiners as to his ability.

Basically the objects of the examination are :

1. To exclude natural disease that mimics the effect of alcohol.

2. To exclude injuries, especially head injuries which may mimic or aggravate the
effects of alcohol.

3. To detect and evaluate impairment of reaction time, co-ordination due to the

effect of alcohol.
 4. To decide whether the driver is fit to be released to the charge of his vehicle,
whether fit to be detained in police custody or whether he should to be admitted in
hospital.

Consent in Drunkenness :

Except where the subject is unconscious or completely uncomprehending, legally valid

consent must be obtained. Where a patient is too drunk or otherwise unconscious, so that
no consent can be obtained, then the doctor should make as best an examination as
possible, but the result of his examination should not be given for the purposes of law until
retrospective permissions has been obtained from the accused when he has recovered
sufficiently.

Drunkenness Certificate :

The examination of the drunkenness need not be entered in the accident register unless
there are injuries on the body of the person.

After obtaining the laboratory investigation results the certificate has to be

issued incorporating the physical signs. The opinion can be expressed in three
forms as shown below:-

1. The person has not consumed alcohol

When there is no smell of alcohol in the breath and absence of signs of
alcoholic intoxication.

2. The Person has consumed alcohol but not under its influence.
When there is persistent smell of alcohol in the breath, congestion of
eyes, normal pupil or dilated pupil with normal reaction to light,
absence of muscular in co-ordination.

3. The person has consumed alcohol and is under its influence.

When there is persistent smell of alcohol in the breath, definite signs of
muscular in co-ordination, dilated pupils with sluggish reaction to
light, fine lateral nystagmus, slurred in-coherent speech, staggering
gait, delayed reaction time, etc.
 Conclusion

In democratic country, the government is responsible to maintain peace and order in

society. For this purpose basically two laws : civil and criminal are prevail. In modern
time the rate of criminal offence become very high day by day and the medical science
play an important role in the form of helping hand to the government in the field of
criminal liabilities and to as well as for private insurance companies, industries,
factories etc. In order to investigate any criminal case the examination of a person
very essential or necessary. Without examination we cannot reach on actual result of
the case.

The medical examination of criminal investigation, drugs, alcohol tests are

few examples of these medical examination. So we can conclude that medical
examination is very important of a living person.
 BIBLIOGRAPHY & WEBLIOGRAPHY

1. Medical Jurisprudence and Toxicology by Jaising P Modi.

2. Forensic Science in Criminal Investigation.

1. en.wikibooks.org/wiki.
2. lawandotherthings.blogspot.com.
3. books.google.co.in.
4. www.indiankanoon.com.
5. www.indianlawbooks.com.