Modis Juris Turned 91 A Tribute 24th Edition 2011 Lexis Nexis

Advocate M. A. Rashid reviews the new edition of “Modi’s Medical Jurisprudence and Toxicology”, book that has since its publication proven to be an undisputed authority in the area of medico-legal disputes..By M. A. Rashid.India follows adversarial system inherited from British for dispensation of Criminal Justice. In this system it is the duty of the prosecution to prove the guilt of the accused beyond reasonable doubt. Unlike the inquisitorial system, the adversarial system does not impose a positive duty on the judge to discover truth. Truth is supposed to emerge from the respective versions of the facts presented by the prosecution and the defence before a neutral judge. The judge acts like an umpire to see whether the prosecution has been able to prove the case beyond reasonable doubt. The powerlessness of a Judge is well illustrated by Peter Murphy in his ‘Practical Guide to Evidence’; a frustrated judge in an adversarial court finally asked a barrister after witnesses had produced conflicting accounts, ‘Am I never to hear the truth?’ ‘No, my lord, merely the evidence’, replied counsel..In inquisitorial system, it is the duty of the Judge to find out the truth and Judge may be an expert in the subject matter. One of the major drawbacks of adversarial system is the difficulty of Judges to resolve complex medical or scientific issues since the Judges do not have the expertise in medical or scientific issues. It is in this context the relevancy of expert evidence is to be understood. Section 45 of the Indian Evidence Act made the expert opinion relevant. Under Section 60 of the Evidence Act the opinion of experts expressed in any treatise commonly offered for sale, and the grounds on which such opinions are held, may be proved by the production of such treatise if the author is dead or cannot be found or has become incapable of giving evidence or cannot be called as a witness without an amount of delay or expense which the Court regards as unreasonable..Expert evidence including medical evidence is not a substantive piece of evidence but it is corroborative only. According to Justice Hidayatullah “the value of a medical witness is not merely a check upon the testimony of eyewitnesses; it is also independent testimony, because it may establish certain facts, quite apart from the other oral evidence. If a person is shot at close range, the marks of tattooing found by the medical witness would show that the range was small, quite apart from any other opinion of his. Similarly fractures of bones, depth and size of the wounds would show the nature of the weapon used. It is wrong to say that it is only opinion evidence; it is often direct evidence of the facts found upon the victim’s person”..Modi’s Medical Jurisprudence and Toxicology needs neither any introduction nor any review. Dr. Jaisingh.P.Mody born in 1875 was the head of the Department of Surgery, Medical College, Agra. Later he worked for 14 years as a reader in Medical Jurisprudence in K.G.Medical College, Lucknow. The first edition of his magnum opus was published when he was 45 and he revised and published the first eleven editions (1952). Later editions were edited by Dr. Natwar Lal Modi, C. A. Franklin, B. V. Subrahmanyam, Dr. Mathiharan and Dr. Amrit K. Patnaik. Now Lexis Nexis Butterworths Wadhwa Nagpur published the twenty fourth edition (2011) edited by Justice K. Kannan (Judge, Punjab &Haryana High Court) and Dr. K. Mathiharan( Head of Forensic Unit, University of Malaya). This is for the first time a jurist is associated with this monumental work and the result is visible that the legal perspective of every topics are explained with the help of relevant case law..Dr. Modi wrote in the preface of the first edition, that “this book has been written chiefly as a textbook for students reading in medical schools and colleges; but in the hope that it may also prove useful to medical and legal practitioners. I have tried to incorporate my practical experience as a medical jurist for about fifteen years and as a lecturer in the Agra Medical College for eleven years and since then in the Lucknow Medical College”. As Modi wished it became a part of Indian Criminal law since it was first published in 1920. It is a law not passed by the Parliament. It can be considered as the fourth Criminal Major Act. It may be the most quoted book on any subject (other than statutes) by the Indian Courts. Modi is preferred to foreign authorities since it is written fully understanding the living conditions of Indian People. Though it was written at a time when forensic science or modern scientific techniques were not developed, it reigns supreme in its field till today. The definitions given by Modi became legal/judicial definitions..Though the settled position of law is that views expressed in medical text books cannot be relied in the absence of their being put to medical witnesses, there are many instances where the Courts relied on authoritative texts like Modi to counter the arguments. Modi’s classification of wounds, principles relating time of death, determination of age are consistently quoted by Judges from the Privy Council to the Supreme Court..In this brand new edition several new topics are discussed in detail with the help of recent studies and relevant case law. The topics like surrogacy, organ transplantation and Human rights, HIV/AIDS etc are included. Medical Negligence and Consumer Protection Act are discussed in very detail. The investigative techniques like Brain mapping and Narco Analysis are discussed in view of the latest Constitution bench Judgment in Selvi and Others Vs State of Karnataka (2010). Many of the old references, case law and outdated facts have been pruned without omitting any of the distinctive contributions of Dr. J. P. Modi. A new chapter on tools of interrogation has been introduced. Because of the Supreme Court orders on sterilisation failures, the chapter on medico-legal aspects of sterilisation has been dropped and its significant contents have been included in the chapter on legal and ethical aspects of medical practice. In addition, relevant case law has been updated in the respective chapters and all the chapters have been restructured, rewritten and revised. The editors also paid special attention to introduce the current advances in all the chapters. More illustrations and colour plates have been added in the text at suitable places. For easy referrals, more boxes containing significant facts and flowcharts have been added. The new Rules and Regulations relating to the subjects are included in the Appendices..Dr. Modi is the first recognised medico legal expert in India also known as the father of Forensic medicine in India. It is worthwhile to remember his contributions especially at a time when the Government is attempting to revamp the forensic medicine in India. In the backdrop of frequent terror attacks in India, the Government and law enforcement agencies realised the need of revamping this branch which vitally assists the investigation agencies, helps the criminal justice administration, and reduces the risk of unmerited acquittals and convictions. As pointed out by a forensic surgeon in her recently published memoir, “Agra had contributed two monuments to the world, one is Shahjahan’s Tajmahal and the other is Modi’s treatise on Medical Jurisprudence”..Advocate M.A. Rashid authored many books for lawyers and law students including Law Relating to Electronic Transfer of Money, (LexisNexis) (2010), Supreme Court Guidelines and Precedents(Universal) (2011), 21 Years Digest On Dishonour Of Cheques(Snow white) (2010), etc. He is also the Chief Mentor of Answeringlaw.