The Madras High Court on Monday directed the State government to provide sufficient time to the families of deceased for performing rituals, subject to all safety protocols, before burials or cremations of bodies of COVID-19 patients.
Justices M.M. Sundresh and R. Hemalatha issued the direction after senior counsel Ravi Kumar Paul and advocate Elambharathi, appearing for the wife of a deceased neurosurgeon, alleged that officials dispose of the bodies in “haste”.
The advocates said that the officials hardly gave any time for family members and relatives to perform religious rituals when the neurosurgeon died, and that was the case with every other COVID-19-related death.
The submissions were made during the hearing of a suo motu public interest litigation petition taken up by a Division Bench, led by Justice M. Sathyanarayanan, in April, when some locals did not allow the burial of the neurosurgeon’s body at the Kilpauk cemetery in Chennai.
They even indulged in violence, forcing the body to be buried at a ground in Velangadu near New Avadi Road, Chennai, where again, a mob attempted to prevent the burial.
After warning people against indulging in such acts, the court directed the government to respond.
In response, the State Government Pleader, V. Jayaprakash Narayanan, on Monday told the court that the Health and Family Welfare Department had issued a government order, adopting the guidelines framed by the Centre for the disposal of bodies.
The Director General of Police, too, had issued a circular in this regard. After recording the submissions made by him, the judges disposed of the suo motu PIL petition after stating that the local police must be informed while burying or cremating the bodies.
The presence of the police would help prevent untoward incidents, they said.