By our legal correspondent
Kochi, Oct 01 (IVC) The Honorable High Court of Kerala on Sept 30 directed the Principal of Government Medical College here to preserve the body of CPI(M) leader and veteran trade union leader M M Lawrence till Thursday Oct 03.
The court was considering a writ petition filed by Lawrence’s daughter Asha Lawrence challenging the decision of the advisory committee to hand over her father’s body for medical research. The trade union leader died on Sept 21 and his body was handed to medical research and education in spite of Asha’s strong objection.
Following the direction of the High Court ,an advisory committee under the head of the Principal of the government Medical College was formed and it took the decision in the matter .
The deceased Lawrence’s two Children M L Sajeevan and Sujata had submitted a consent letter to the Medical College expressing their willingness to donate the body according to the wish of the veteran trade union leader.
Asha’s counsel contended that the decision to donate the body for medical research without her consent as the deceased had not submitted the ratification deed to donate his body for medical purposes. One cannot assume that the deceased wanted to donate his body for the medical research in the absence of ratification deed.
The advisory committee set up at the Government Medical college , Ernakulam in this regard decided on Sept 25 in favor of handing over the mortal remains of Lawrence for medical research. This decision was challenged by Lawrence’s daughter Asha .
When the petition came up for hearing, Justice V G Arun asked the State attorney to inform the court whether an authority superior to the Principal could be directed to decide on the issue.
The court orally observed that what was recorded in the hearing by the authorized officer of the medical college was one-sided.
In fact, the Principal should have taken a decision on his own, instead of constituting an advisory committee. Besides, the principal should have sought the permission of the court before appointing the committee to hear the issue.
There were certain factors that had vitiated the hearing. Therefore the matter required to be dealt with in detail.
The petitioner alleged that the decision of the committee was biased. No proper hearing was conducted. She and her two siblings –M L sajeevan and Sujata Boban – who signed affidavits expressing their consent to hand over the body to the college were heard separately.
