A few days before he died on Sunday, Calcutta High Court’s oldest practising barrister informed his colleagues in a city known for unscheduled holidays that he wouldn’t like one to be taken in his name.

“Do not abstain from the court to mourn my death. Staying away from work should not be the manner to pay homage to any departed soul,” Peston Pedamji Jinwala, who died in Mumbai at age 89, wrote last week in a letter to the Calcutta High Court Bar Library Club.

He was a member of that club since 1943.

When news of Jinwala’s death reached the court on Monday, the bar immediately decided to keep the court open on Tuesday in deference to his wishes. It is the norm and an old tradition in the high court to shut shop for a day whenever a senior lawyer or a presiding or former judge dies.

A reluctant Jinwala had to adhere to this tradition when he was alive, but the barrister who Chief Justice S.S. Nijjar described as “a man of work” couldn’t be denied in death.

Instead of a bandh, a condolence meeting was held on the court premises at the end of work on Tuesday. The chief justice and all judges and lawyers were present.

“Jinwala was my senior and, having worked under him, I know he was a man whose motto was work. He did not believe that homage could be paid to a dead person by stopping work. That was why he made this request to his professional colleagues,” said lawyer Arijit Chowdhury, who was an apprentice of Jinwala for a long period.

Advocate-general Balai Ray, who read out the barrister’s letter during the meeting, said: “Jinwala is the first lawyer to have taught us this lesson. Normal functioning of the court should not be stopped because of the death of any of our colleagues.”

The courts enjoy 167 official holidays, including Saturdays and Sundays. Lawyers also take unscheduled holidays to mourn deaths. “At least 20 working days are lost every year because of deaths,” said Supradip Roy, a lawyer.

This at a time when there are nearly 2 lakh cases awaiting disposal in the high court.

Officials said Calcutta High Court enjoyed more holidays than institutions of jurisprudence elsewhere in the country.

“All other high courts have to function for at least 210 days a year,” government pleader Sovanlal Hazra said. “But here the festival holidays stretch much beyond the days of the festival itself. For instance, the court is shut for 29 days for Durga puja, though the festival itself is over in four to five days.”

Hazra said that was why the number of cases pending in other high courts was fewer than in Calcutta.

“Considering the problem of litigants because of the high number of pending cases, court holidays should be curtailed and advocates not allowed to stay away,” said Saradindu Biswas, advocate and executive committee member of the Bar Council of West Bengal.