New Delhi: The Supreme Court on January 20 said that it is pained to see that a man from Chhattisgarh had to come to the Supreme Court with a plea to bury his father, who was a Christian pastor, in the Chindwara village graveyard as the state and the high court couldn’t resolve the issue.
The petitioner in the case is a tribal Christian and his father passed away on January 7 due to prolonged illness. However, when the family tried to bury him at their village graveyard meant for Christians, some villagers aggressively objected to it and threatened the family with dire consequences, says the special leave petition in the Supreme Court, reported LiveLaw.
The petition says that when the family sought help from the police, the cops exerted pressure on them to take the body out of the village, as a result of which the body has been kept in a mortuary since January 7.
After the matter reached the high court, it had observed that while no separate burial ground is available for the Christians in Chhindawala village, a separate burial ground was available in another village around 20-25 kilometres away.
“Considering the fact that burial ground/graveyard of Christian community is available in nearby area, it will not be proper to grant relief as sought for by petitioner in this writ petition, which may cause unrest and disharmony in the public at large,” the high court had said.
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