The Madras high court in its order had asked the Centre and the state government’s response to a plea by Dr Mohammed Khader Meeran, seeking digitization of medical reports, including postmortem reports.

The first bench of Acting Chief Justice T Raja and Justice D Krishnakumar ordered the authorities to file their response within four weeks on the plea.

The petitioner asked the court for the implementation of the MedLeaPR (medico legal examination and postmortem reporting) software framework in all government hospitals. Apart from this, the plea also requires all practising doctors to be trained to use the software to digitise medical certifications of cause of death and other reports/certificates.

For the family of the deceased, doctors, undertakers and those ordering burials, as well as for the police, judiciary, insurance companies and others, medical and legal records are crucial. In order to carry out justice, it is crucial to provide those reports in a format that is easy to read, and they should also be released and stored in an encrypted fashion, the petitioner said.