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The Supreme Court on Wednesday said it expected an amicable settlement and a decent burial of a pastor whose body was lying in a mortuary since January 7 as it reserved its verdict on his son's plea.
A bench of Justices B V Nagarathna and Satish Chandra Sharma was hearing a plea of one Ramesh Baghel, challenging an order of the Chhattisgarh high court which disposed of his plea seeking burial of his father in the area specified for Christian burials in his village graveyard.
"The body is in the morgue for 15 days, please find a solution. Let the man have a decent burial. There should be an amicable settlement," the bench said.
Solicitor general Tushar Mehta, representing the Chattishgarh government, submitted the burial should take place in the designated area for the Christian tribals which was located about 20-30 kilometer away from the family's Chhindawada village.
Senior advocate Colin Gonsalves, appearing for Baghel, said the state's affidavit claiming it was a tradition for Christian tribals to go outside the village for burial was a lie.
Gonsalves placed on record revenue maps of the village and argued there were many cases in which the community members were buried in the village itself.
The bench expressed surprise over the sudden objection of the Hindu tribals, given for years nobody raised objections to the burials of persons from both communities together.
When the court suggested that alternatively the pastor could be buried on his own private land, Mehta objected and said burials should take place only at the designated spot which was 20-30 kilometers away.
The apex court then reserved its verdict after hearing the parties.
The top court had previously expressed anguish to have witnessed a man move court to bury his father as per Christian rites in the Chhattisgarh village after the authorities failed to resolve the issue.
According to Baghel, Chhindawada village had a graveyard which was verbally allotted by the gram panchayat for burial and cremation of bodies.
In the graveyard, separate areas were demarcated for burial of tribals; burial or cremation of people belonging to Hindu religion and for persons belonging to the Christian community.
In the area specified for Christians, the petitioner's aunt and grandfather were buried in this village graveyard.
The plea said the petitioner and his family members wanted to hold the man's last rites and bury his mortal remains in the area specified for Christian persons in the graveyard.
"Hearing of this some villagers aggressively objected to it and threatened of dire consequences if the petitioner and his family buried the petitioner's father in this land. They are also not allowing the petitioner's family to bury the mortal remains in the petitioner's family privately-owned land," it said.
According to Baghel, the villagers said a Christian couldn't be buried in their village, be it the village graveyard or a private land.
"When the villagers turned violent, the petitioner's family made a report to police following which 30-35 police personnel reached the village. The police also exerted pressure on the family to take the body out of the village," he said.