CHENNAI: A full bench of Madras High Court on Thursday ruled against burying dead bodies in places other than designated burial grounds and if buried so, the bodies must be exhumed and buried in designated grounds.
The ruling was given by the bench of justices R Mahadevan, G Jayachandran and Mohammed Shaffiq on an appeal petition which was referred to the bench. The full bench held that the burial of bodies in places other than designated grounds is not allowed after the Tamil Nadu Village Panchayats (Provision of Burial and Burning Grounds) Rules, 1999, came into force.
“After the rules came into force, any burial in a place other than the registered or licensed burial ground goes in contravention to rule 7(1). If a body buried in contravention to the rules 5 and 7, is to be exhumed and buried in the designated place,” the bench ruled.
It held that if such violation is brought to the notice within a reasonable time and bodies buried so are not exhumed and relocated to the designated ground, the authorities shall do so and recover the charges from the concerned people.
The bench noted that the framers of the rules were conscious of the fact that there may be a violation of rule 7(1) and therefore included punishment. Referring to the restriction for burial within 90m of water bodies as per rule 7(1), the bench said such restriction cannot be construed as the right to bury bodies anywhere and everywhere.
Referring to the division bench’s order in P Muthusamy's case, the full bench noted that the division bench only recognised the custom prevailing in that particular village and the order is only restricted to the said case. The appeal was filed by Jagdeeswari and her children against an order of a single judge who ordered the exhumation of the body of her husband Narasihmmalu Naidu buried in a place other than the designated ground in their village Nochili in Tiruvallur district.