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Disposing of a writ petition that challenged a local government proposal to allot part of Hindu burial ground for the purpose of Christian Cemetery, the Andhra Pradesh High Court concluded that the land was proposed to be offered to SC community people, and held that the allotment was neither illegal nor violative of any fundamental rights of the petitioners as it is the duty of the local self-governments to provide burial ground/crematorium.

The Bench of Justice Battu Devanand observed,  

“It is very unfortunate to notice that even after 75 years of independent India some sections of people of the society are facing difficulties even for funerals also for lack of burial grounds and crematoriums in some villages and Towns.”

Court also noted that During the course of hearing of this writ petition, it came to the notice that due to lack of proper burial grounds/crematoriums, a section of people belonging to Scheduled Castes are doing funeral activities on the tank bund of Pedakakani Village and other villagers have been objecting for that.

Reiterating its earlier order which held that right to dignity and respect which is included under Article 21 of the Indian Constitution is not only available to a living man but also to his dead body, the Court ordered,

“This court expects that the State Government and the local self-Governments shall make endeavour to look into this issue seriously and to ensure to provide burial grounds and crematoriums irrespective of religion, region, caste, gender, etc., to the deceased persons to have a decent burial or cremation according to their customs to which one belongs to.”

Court noted that earlier the petitioners brought a writ petition alleging that the respondents (State and Local authorities) were allotting a tank land for the purpose of Christian cemetery. However, the petition was disposed of recording that the allegations were mistaken as the concerned area was not the tank land. A part of it was already being used as the crematorium, and the remaining part was proposed for Christian Cemetery.

Thereafter, the petitioner brought the present petition before the court. Feeling that the issue before it was a sensitive one, the court held that the it had to be handled by the respondents with care and caution.

Court directed the respondents to conduct survey of the area in question in presence of all the parties concerned and if the burial ground land found under encroachment, to take immediate steps to evict the encroachers by following due process of law to enable the respondents to allot the said land for burial ground to the SC community people.