The Madras high court on Monday directed Tamil Nadu public health director to consider the resignation of Dr V Dekal who had conducted the post mortem on the body of former telecom minister A Raja's aide Sadiq Batcha.

Justice N Paul Vasanthakumar, before whom the petition came up, directed the director of public health to consider the resignation and pass orders in accordance with law.

The order should be communicated on or before March 24, the judge said.

Batcha's body was found hanging in his house in South Chennai on Wednesday last.

After the autopsy, Dr Dekal had said Batcha's death was due to asphyxia and his body showed compression of the neck with hanging mark and that the cause of death cannot be confirmed till the forensic report was received.

Dr Dekal, who put in his papers in the first week of March, said his resignation has nothing to do with the case as he planned to contest the April 13 assembly elections.

He filed a petition on March 12, saying he had submitted his resignation on March 3 in order to contest the poll.