Supreme Court
New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Monday issued a divided verdict, directing the burial of a priest, whose body has been kept in a mortuary in Chhattisgarh since January 7, at a place designated for Christians. Justice B. V. Nagarathna said the Christian convert should be buried on the family’s private agricultural land but Justice Satish Chandra Sharma said the body should be buried at a designated place away from the village in Chhattisgarh.
The bench said that the body of the pastor has been kept in the mortuary since January 7 due to the dispute over the place of burial and keeping this in mind it will not refer the matter to a larger bench. He directed that the body be buried at the designated place, which is 20 kilometers away from Chhindwara village in the state. The bench said it was passing this order considering the specific facts and circumstances of the case and directed the state government to provide complete security so that no untoward incident takes place.
Court gave its verdict on the petition of pastor’s son
The Supreme Court had said on January 22 that it hoped for an amicable solution to the matter of burial of the priest’s body and that the priest would be cremated in a dignified manner. The court had reserved its decision on the petition of the pastor’s son. The bench gave this decision while hearing the petition of a person named Ramesh Baghel.
What is the whole matter?
The petitioner had challenged an order of the Chhattisgarh High Court. The High Court had disposed of Ramesh Baghel’s plea regarding his request to bury the body of his pastor father in the village cemetery in the area designated for the burial of Christians. Earlier, the Supreme Court had said it was saddened to see that a man living in a village in Chhattisgarh had to approach the apex court to bury his father’s body as per Christian rituals as the authorities were unable to resolve the issue. Failed in.
Villagers had protested against burying the dead body
Baghel had claimed that there is a graveyard in Chhindwara village which has been verbally allotted by the Gram Panchayat for burial and cremation of dead bodies. Apart from the burial of tribals, burial or cremation of people of Hindu religion, separate areas were earmarked in the cemetery for people of Christian community. The petition said that the petitioner and his family members wanted to bury the mortal remains of the pastor in the area designated for Christians in the cemetery. It said, “On hearing this, some villagers strongly opposed it and threatened the petitioner and his family with dire consequences if they buried the petitioner’s father on this land.” They are also not allowing the petitioner’s family to bury the body on his privately owned land.
Pressure put on the family to take the dead body out of the village
According to Baghel, the villagers say that no Christian can be buried in their village, be it in the village graveyard or private land. “When the villagers turned violent, the petitioner’s family informed the police, following which 30-35 policemen reached the village,” he said. The police also put pressure on the family to take the body out of the village.
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