KOCHI: The Kerala High Court has held that burying a body on a stranger’s property without the owner’s explicit consent could be interpreted as abandonment of that body.
The court made the observation while considering a petition filed by Rajesh, a Kottayam native, seeking to implement the sub-divisional magistrate’s order to disinter the body of a woman buried on his land without his consent.
Following the death of an elderly woman who had been suffering from cancer for a long time, her son buried the body in their ancestral property that had been sold to a third party. The son claimed that the burial was done with the consent of the present owner. However, the land owner approached the sub-divisional magistrate concerned and obtained a favourable order, which was not implemented. The magistrate, in the order issued in October 2022, had directed the son to disinter the body within one week, failing which the secretary of Amballoor panchayat was to get the body exhumed and bury it in the panchayat burial ground.
The HC said the woman’s body was buried on a stranger’s property, whose religion, faith and custom do not permit such a burial. It is a good enough reason for ordering disinterment, it said.
Bury body with respect and dignity it deserves, says HC
“In my opinion, his refusal to remove the corpse even after it became evident that the body was buried on a stranger’s property, the son had virtually abandoned the body of his mother, making it akin to an unclaimed corpse,” said Justice V G Arun said in the order. The petitioner argued that no person has the right to bury a body in another person’s property without consent. The buried body is liable to be removed forthwith, since the faith and custom of the petitioner do not permit such burial, the plea stated.
“On a philosophical note, death is that beautiful moment when you are finally at peace, relieved of the shadows of yesterday and the uncertainties of tomorrow. That beautiful moment also casts an obligation on the dear and near of the dead person, to bury the body with the respect and dignity it deserves,” the judge said.