By Our Reporter
SHILLONG, June 12: The High Court of Meghalaya has directed the district councils to cooperate with the state and a government-formed committee to hold meetings with various denominations of the Christian community and solve the issue of burying the dead in cemeteries.
The directive followed the hearing of a public interest litigation (PIL) by a Division Bench of Chief Justice Indra Prasanna Mukerji and Justice Wanlura Diengdoh on Thursday.
Initially, the scope of the PIL filed by the Seng Khasi Hima Crematorium was confined to facilitating the cremation of persons belonging to Khasi and Jaintia communities on the one hand and those embracing the Hindu religion on the other hand, throughout Meghalaya.
The main issue was regarding the dearth of crematoria and the lack of willingness of the two communities to share a particular crematorium. Through an order on April 8, the court appointed an amicus curiae and directed him to hold meetings with the district magistrates and representatives of the two communities to arrive at some kind of a settlement to share a crematorium.
The court also observed that the government was in the process of constructing new crematoria in various regions of the state. By another order on May 8, the court noted that some kind of settlement had been reached between the two communities, as a result of the order and action taken by the said committee.
“But a new problem was taken note of by the court. There was similar discord between various denominations of the Christian faith to share a cemetery. By the said order, we enlarged the scope of the public interest litigation to include the Christian community also,” the order said.
The court directed the Khasi Hills Autonomous District Council, Jaintia Hills Autonomous District Council, and the Garo Hills Autonomous District Council to be made party respondents. The court observed that due to inadvertence, the earlier order was not forwarded to the Registrar General and appears not to have been sent to the three councils.
The court master attached to this court was directed to immediately send the relevant orders to the Registrar General for service on the councils.
The court directed the amicus curiae to hold similar meetings with the district magistrates and members of the community, as they had held about the problem faced by the other communities noted above.
Additional Advocate General K Khan and Amicus Curiae N Syngkon submitted before the court that some progress has been made in this direction, and they sought time to file reports. The court granted the state and the committee time till the next hearing of the PIL to hold meetings with the various denominations of the Christian community and arrive at a solution to the issue of burying the dead. “The district councils will cooperate with the state and the committee for implementation of the order,” the court order read.