KOCHI: The Kerala High Court asked to keep the body of late CPM leader M M Lawrence in the mortuary of Kalamasery Medical College. The court was considering the plea filed by his daughter Asha against the decision to hand over the body to the medical college. Let the matter be decided under the Anatomy Act. The court ordered that the body should be kept in the medical college till then and not be used for educational purposes pending the decision.

Lawrence has not written in writing that the body should be handed over to the medical college. The petitioner informed the court that this was not even mentioned in his autobiography. However, the other children informed the court that Lawrence had verbally said that the body should be given for educational purposes.

The petition said the body of Lawrence should not be handed over to the medical college and that he had not said to do so. Asha approached the high court when Lawrence's body was to be handed over to the Kalamasseri Medical College around 4 pm today.

The body, which was kept in a private hospital mortuary in Kochi, has been kept at home for public viewing since 7:30 this morning. The body will be later taken to Lenin Center, the district committee office of the CPM. There will also be public viewing at Ernakulam Town Hall till 4 pm. Senior CPM leaders including Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan paid their last respects to Lawrence.