The Hindu Business Line : Forensic experts call for standard format in checking documents

About 40 experts of `forensic questioned documents' (scientific evaluation of documents, their authenticity) had gathered here to discuss various issues pertaining to forensics. A meeting of this kind has not been held in the last 34 years.

At the end of the deliberations, the workshop prepared a set of recommendations to improve the quality and standard of the procedures.

Listing them, Dr K.P.C. Gandhi, Director of Andhra Pradesh Forensic Science Laboratories, said experts felt the need to have a data bank of inks with specific attributes. These, with all limitations, would help zero-in on the year in which a document in question was created.

It also wanted a national-level panel to be set up to design a standard format of giving opinions by the forensic experts of `questioned documents'. It was felt that experts were spending most of their time in attending to court cases.

With regard to demands for re-examination, the workshop pointed out that such requests should come through courts.

Delivering the valedictory address, Mr Justice Y. Bhaskara Rao, Member of National Human Rights Commission, said there should be a proper mechanism to produce qualified forensic experts of questioned documents.