The body has been kept since January 7, Supreme Court judges have different opinions on the funeral; what is the decision?

The Supreme Court on Monday delivered a split verdict directing the burial of a pastor whose body has been kept in a mortuary in Chhattisgarh since January 7 at a designated place for Christians. Justice B.V. Nagarathna said the Christian convert should be buried on the private agricultural land of the family but Justice Satish Chandra Sharma said the body should be buried at a designated place away from the village in Chhattisgarh.

The bench said that the body of the pastor has been kept in the mortuary since January 7 due to the dispute over the place of his burial and keeping this in mind, it will not refer the matter to a larger bench. It directed that the body be buried at the designated place, which is 20 km away from Chhindwara village in the state. The bench said that it was passing this order in view of the specific facts and circumstances of the case and directed the state government to provide full security so that no untoward incident takes place.

The court gave its verdict on the petition of the pastor's son

On January 22, the Supreme Court had said that it hoped that an amicable solution would be found in the matter of burial of the priest's body and the priest would be cremated in a dignified manner. The court had reserved its decision on the petition of the priest's son. The bench gave this decision while hearing the petition of a person named Ramesh Baghel.

What is the whole matter?

The petitioner had challenged an order of the Chhattisgarh High Court. The High Court had disposed of Ramesh Baghel's plea requesting to bury the body of his pastor father in the area designated for Christian burial in the village cemetery. Earlier, the Supreme Court had said that it was saddened to see that a person living in a village in Chhattisgarh had to approach the apex court to bury his father's body according to Christian customs as the authorities failed to resolve the issue.

The villagers had protested against burying the dead body

Baghel had claimed that there is a graveyard in Chhindwara village which has been verbally allotted by the Gram Panchayat for burial and cremation of dead bodies. The graveyard had separate areas for burial of tribals, burial or cremation of people of Hindu religion, besides areas for people of Christian community. The petition said that the petitioner and his family members wanted to bury the body of the pastor in the area designated for Christian people in the graveyard. "On hearing this, some villagers strongly opposed this and threatened the petitioner and his family with dire consequences if they buried the petitioner's father on this land. They are also not allowing the petitioner's family to bury the body on their privately owned land," it said.

Pressure was put on the family to take the body out of the village

According to Baghel, the villagers say that no Christian can be buried in their village, whether it is the village cemetery or private land. He said, "When the villagers became violent, the petitioner's family informed the police, after which 30-35 policemen reached the village. The police also pressured the family to take the body out of the village."

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