A special leave petition has been filed in the Supreme Court against the refusal of the Bombay High Court to grant interim stay on the burial of dead bodies of the deceased persons who were infected with COVID 19 in three Muslim Cemetries in Mumbai.
The petition has been filed by a resident of Mumbai, Pradeep Gandhy seeking who has submitted that the Konkani Muslim Cemetery, Khoja Sunnat Jamat Kabrastan Bandra West and KhojaIsna Ashari Jammat Kabrastan Bandra West are interconnected and are immediately next to Petitioners residence. The cemeteries are surrounded by residential colonies and falls in the heart of Bandra West.
The petitioner has further submitted that “the State Government had originally issued a Circular dated 30.03.2020 directing that all Covid-19 infected deceased should be cremated and not buried, to avoid the risk of spreading of infection. However, due to undisclosed reasons, the State government modified this Circular, and issued the impugned Circular dated 9.04.2020, permitting burial to take place in 20 notified cemeteries, which included the subject cemeteries.”
The Petitioner has further expressed fear of the spread of the Covid-19 virus through the soil to the nearby populace, if the infected bodies are buried in the subject cemeteries and has submitted that “the present unprecedented health situation ought to take precedence over the religious rights of the deceased’s family members seeking to bury the deceased at the subject cemeteries.”
-India Legal Bureau