Mumbai, April 2, 2019:The Bombay High Court on April 1 directed St. John The Baptist Church, Thane, to approach the Thane municipal commissioner, seeking permission to bury an ex-service personnel on an open ground in possession of the church.
The trust had on March 20, buried the person without any permissions from the authorities.
A division bench of Justice Ranjit More and Justice Bharati Dangre while disposing off the petition filed by the trust said that the application should be made under provisions of the Municipal Corporation Act within one week from today.
“The commissioner is directed to decide the same in four weeks. The commissioner also asked to consider the plea for alternative burial ground for the community,” said Advocate Joaquim Fernandes.
The trust had approached the court last week seeking directions to the corporation to allow them to bury a deceased woman in the plot of land. However, since the permission was not granted they had buried the woman at a different ground.
There has been a tussle between local residents and the trust as the resident are opposing the trust converting the open land into a burial ground. While the trust claimed that the community has no burial ground in the vicinity and the plot of land in question is in their possession.
The plea states there are about 5000 parishioners who all belong to Roman Catholic Communities, staying in Thane. There are about 300,000 people belonging to Catholic communities. There are only two small burial grounds of about 2000 sq. ft. and that too owned by the trust, however, those are also insufficient.
The plea further states there is a long standing demand with the civic body to provide them an alternate place to bury the corpse. Several representations are made but are not being considered.
Recently, the community buried an ex-serviceman on the said plot of land as the authorities did not give any permission. The local police thus filed a case against 11 people.
(dnaindia)