The review in the Royal Courts of Justice has been brought by Davender Kumar Ghai, founder of the Anglo-Asian Friendship Society, who has been campaigning for a change of British laws to allow funeral pyres conforming to Hindu rites.
Currently, open air funeral pyres are not allowed, and many families in Britain take bodies of their deceased relatives to India for cremation according to Hindu rites.
Open-air funerals in Britain are illegal since 1930. The judicial review hearing is scheduled over three days from Tuesday.
Newcastle-based Ghai, 70, who is in poor health, said, "I have lived my entire life by the Hindu scriptures. I now yearn to die by them and I do not believe that natural cremation grounds as long as they were discreet, designated sites far from urban and residential areas would offend public decency."
"My loyalty is to Britain's values of fairness, tolerance and freedom. If I cannot die as a true Hindu, it will mean those values have died too," Ghai added.
In an earlier legal hearing on the issue in March 2007, Justice Andrew Collins said the judicial review was of "considerable importance" and a full hearing in the high court was, in the public interest.
"As a Hindu, I believe my soul should be liberated in consecrated fire, Agni, after death -- a sacramental rebirth," Ghai also said.
Ghai's lawyers are set to argue that denying him the right to an open-air pyre conflicts with human rights legislation which protects, among other rights, the right to freedom of religious belief.
"This case simply covers the right of a devout Hindu to perform a funeral in line with his cultural and religious beliefs," his lawyer Ramby De Mello told the high court as he opened his case.
Ghai said before the hearing that he was seeking a judicial review to "clarify and enforce the law, not disrespect it".
The case, being heard by judge Ross Cranston, is expected to last three days. A Ministry of Justice spokesperson said, "There are inevitably competing views on the appropriate arrangements for disposing of bodies stemming from different views about religion, morals and decency."
"The current law requires that cremations must take place in a crematorium and open air funeral pyres are not allowed. The government considers that this requirement is justified, taking into account the complex social and political issues raised," the spokesperson added.
In July 2006, Ghai organised a funeral pyre in a remote field in Northumberland of Rajpal Mehat, 31, an illegal Indian immigrant. The act was against the law but the Crown Prosecution Service decided not to bring charges.
