Calcutta High Court directs handing over of advocate's unclaimed dead body to Bar Association for last rites

The Calcutta High Court on Monday allowed the office-bearers of the High Court Bar Association to complete the last rites of a deceased advocate whose body went unclaimed. (Manabendranath Bandhopadhyay v. State of West Bengal & Ors).A Division Bench of Chief Justice Prakash Shrivastava and Justice Rajarshi Bharadwaj directed,"The State authorities are directed to hand over the dead body of deceased Kaushik Dey to the petitioner/Mr. Kallol Mondal (Vice President of Bar Association)/Mr. Biswabrata Basu Mallick (Secretary of the Bar Association) without any unnecessary delay as per rule on completion of due formalities.We make it clear that handing over of the body is for the limited purpose of performance of last rites and will not affect any legal right of any legal heir etc.".The Bench passed the order in a public interest litigation (PIL) filed by a practicing advocate of the High Court seeking that the High Court Bar Association be allowed to conduct the last rites of the deceased advocate, Kaushik Dey.The Court observed that the State authorities had no objection to granting the above relief.With respect to the original death certificate of the deceased advocate, the Court directed that the same be handed over by authorities to the Secretary of the Bar Association for safekeeping until he hands it over to any lawful claimant that might come forward later.While disposing of the petition, the Court urged the State authorities to extend their full cooperation."The State authorities will extend full cooperation for smooth performance of the last rites of the deceased advocate," the Court concluded..Advocates Biswabrata Basu Mallick and Dipayan Kundu appeared for the petitioner. Advocate General SN Mookherjee along with Advocate N Chatterjee appeared for the State. Advocate Billwadal Bhattacharyya represented the Union of India..Read order: