The mediator appointed to resolve the dispute over handing over of the body of Communist Party of India (Marxist) leader M.M. Lawrence to the Government Medical College, Ernakulam, on Monday informed a Division Bench of the Kerala High Court that the dispute could not be settled amicably.
When appeals filed by Asha Lawrence and Sujatha Boban, daughters of the leader, against a single judge’s order to hand over their father’s body to the medical college came up for hearing, the mediator submitted that the parties involved in the dispute were not amenable to a change in their stance and a settlement could not be arrived at.
The Bench comprising Chief Justice Nitin Jamdar and Justice S. Manu had, while appointing senior lawyer N.N. Sugunapalan as mediator, observed that an attempt should be made to resolve the dispute amicably.
The court had also pointed out that it was an “inter se” family dispute which had not been addressed by the Anatomy Act. Therefore, such matters should be resolved by the family members themselves, not by authorities under the Act.
In his report, the mediator submitted that the parties were not amenable to any change in their stand and that the daughters insisted that their brother must withdraw his demand to hand over the body to the medical college.
On the other hand, their brother suggested that his sisters give up their demand to bury the body at the church cemetery. The mediator said though he tried his best to prevail upon them and suggested that one of them must yield to others’ view, they were unyielding. All of them stood firm in their respective stand.
The daughters contended that the order of the single judge, which relied on the affidavit of their brother M.L. Sajeevan in which he claimed that his father had expressed his wishes to donate his body for medical research in the presence of two witnesses, was illegal.
The court adjourned to December 12 the appeals for further hearing.
Published – December 09, 2024 06:47 pm IST
