Barao Abdul, of PoK, at NRS hospital: PIL support. A Telegraph picture

A city-based legal aid organisation has moved a public interest litigation in the high court, seeking permission to become the legal guardian of Barao Abdul, a 30-year-old woman from Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK) who has been languishing in NRS hospital for 10 months.

Barao requires surgery to remove stones from her gall bladder but there is no one to sign the risk bond, which is mandatory for the surgery. She had suffered from psychiatric illness and is “not mentally sound enough to give consent for the surgery”.

Legal Aid Services West Bengal has also sought an order directing the hospital authorities to waive the risk bond stipulation for Barao.

“The sad tale of Barao, which appeared in Metro, touched us. We decided to stand by the poor woman,” said Gitanath Ganguli, executive chairman of the organisation. The PIL is scheduled to come up for hearing on June 14.

Ganguli has also got in touch with the NRS authorities. The doctors attending to Barao have decided to go ahead with the pre-surgical tests, so the operation is not delayed if and when the clearance comes.

The Pakistani high commission in New Delhi is aware of Barao’s plight but cannot do anything unless the external affairs ministry allows consulate officials to visit Calcutta and identify the patient.

Barao, who says she hails from Balgaon, in Harchoyal district of PoK, was found unconscious near Contai on the Calcutta-Digha road on the morning of April 27 last year. Local residents admitted her to the sub-divisional hospital.

The doctor who treated Barao in Contai referred her to NRS on May 16 that year. The referral card was not sent to the Calcutta hospital for three months.

Barao was admitted to the psychiatric department of NRS hospital on August 28, 2006.

In its petition, the legal aid organisation also called for an order asking the state authorities to conduct a survey to find out how many unidentified or abandoned mental patients are languishing in hospital like Barao.