The Supreme Court has adjourned a plea seeking traditional funeral rights for members of the Parsi community, who succumbed to Covid-19, challenging the order of the Gujarat High Court, which had dismissed the petition on the ground of being devoid of merits.
The bench, comprising Justice D.Y. Chandrachud and Justice Surya Kant, suggested Solicitor General Tushar Mehta and Senior Advocate Fali S Nariman convene a meeting and decide.
SG Mehta submitted that they have filed an affidavit, but this may not be allowed scientifically.
The Centre’s affidavit stated that the dead bodies of infected patients are likely to get exposed to the environment and animals, if not buried or cremated properly.
Nariman, appearing for the Surat Parsi Panchayat Board, submitted, “We have mentioned our own rules, it can be considered keeping that in view, some decent burial of bodies and assured the bench to have a meeting scheduled together.”
The Surat Parsi Panchayat Board, through its Trustee Dr Homi D Doodhwala, filed a plea before the Gujarat High Court and submitted that the guidelines of the government, namely Covid-19 guidelines on dead body management, are completely silent on the other mode of funeral/disposal of bodies and impliedly ignoring the other religious practices of other communities.
The petitioner submitted that the Parsi community is not being allowed to follow their religious and customary mandates of the last rites of the Parsis, who died due to Covid-19.
It has been stated that the Parsees across India since several centuries have practised “Dokhmenashini”, wherein the dead body is kept at a height in a structure known as “Well/Tower of Silence” to be eaten by vultures and the remains being exposed to the Sun for it to decompose.
However, on account of Covid-19 guidelines for the management of dead bodies, the Parsis are not allowed to perform their last rites Dokhmenashini as per their faith.
The World Health Organization (WHO), in its guideline named “Infection prevention and control for the safe management of a dead body in the context of Covid-19,” has made recommendations for the disposal of Covid-19 infected bodies by cremation or burial.
After considering the facts of the case, the Gujarat High Court held, “The safety and the welfare of the state is the supreme law, as comprehended in the legal maxim – “salus populi suprema lex”. Even the fundamental rights to profess, practice or propagate religion, and the right to manage religious affairs, as enshrined under Articles 25 and 26 of the Constitution, are subject to public order, morality and health.”
The matter will be listed after two weeks.