NEW DELHI: The Delhi High Court pulled up the city Government for not taking a firm stand on post-mortem of an NRI couple’s five-month-old girl whose body was brought from UK seven years after she died in a hospital there.

"It’s difficult for us also to see the family of the girl fighting a legal battle just for the post-mortem of her daughter.

The delay on the part of the Government defies all logical explanation," a Division Bench comprising Justice T S Thakur and Justice Veena Birbal said. The Bench directed the Government to file its affidavit by September 27 stating why there was delay in conducting the postmortem.

The Government informed the Court that Maulana Azad Medical College (MAMC) had expressed reservation in conducting postmortem as the child died in other country. The couple, who had arrived with the body of their daughter Sunaina in March, alleged that she had died under mysterious circumstances in the hospital in 2000 due to medical negligence.

The post-mortem of the body was conducted in UK which gave clean chit to the hospital there. The couple has alleged that the authorities there were protecting the hospital and the post-mortem was not done honestly. They finally brought back the dead body to conduct fresh post-mortem.