Acquire land for common burial: HC to Meghalaya
Tired of too many ads? go ad free now
The court of chief justice IP Mukerji and justice W Diengdoh was hearing a petition filed by 'Re-Seng Khasi Hima Crematorium,' raising the issue of a dearth of crematoria and the lack of willingness of the Khasis and the Jaintias to share a particular crematorium.
Initially, the scope of the PIL was confined to facilitating the cremation of persons belonging to Khasi and Jaintia communities on one hand and those embracing the Hindu religion on the other throughout the state.
The court, in its order on Monday, stated it carefully examined the detailed report filed by Additional Advocate General K Khan and the report filed by Amicus Curiae N Syngkon.
The court also noted that the result of the meetings between the Amicus Curiae and the public authorities appears to be that some Christian denominations, through churches and other religious orders, own private cemeteries. "Those denominations having private cemeteries are reluctant to share their cemeteries with other denominations.
They have no objection to sharing cemeteries which are acquired by the govt or public authority and designated for common burial for all communities irrespective of faith," the court said.
Stating that the common burial grounds are very few in number compared to the number of dead and the demand for space for their interment, the court said the villages have community land belonging to the village people in common, and a part of it may be gifted for common burial purposes.
Tired of too many ads? go ad free now
"However, substantial land is required across the districts for the above common burial purpose, if any progress is to be made towards solving this problem. These lands need to be acquired by the govt through the land acquisition machinery or through private sale or treaty," the court stated.
The court further directed the Amicus Curiae to move the chief secretary of the state to form a committee led by the chief secretary as the chairperson to hold meetings between all stakeholders, including representatives of the district councils, representatives of churches or religious orders, administrative officers, state legal counsel and local functionaries for the purpose of acquisition of land for common burial.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Hindustan Times
an hour ago
- Hindustan Times
I-Day Special: How Partition reshaped Delhi
In August 1947, writer and playwright Bhisham Sahni boarded a train from Rawalpindi to Delhi – not to relocate, but to witness history. Jawaharlal Nehru was to speak in Delhi at the stroke of midnight as India became free. Sahni's plan was always to return home to Rawalpindi, where he lived with his parents, wife and their one-year-old daughter, Kalpana. The 1941 census recorded Delhi's population at 917,939. By 1951, after the influx of Hindu and Sikh refugees and the departure of many Muslims, it had nearly doubled to 1.74 million. (Wikimedia Commons/Photo division) 'He stayed in Delhi for a few days, but when he decided to return, he realised that he had missed the final train to Pakistan. Riots had erupted everywhere; communication and rail services had collapsed. Our relatives lived in Delhi, on what is now known as Amrita Shergill Marg; they put charpoys around the house for displaced friends and family and people stayed there briefly, including my father,' recalled Kalpana. And just like that, rather reluctantly, Delhi became Sahni's home. It was an accident shared by millions of others who fled newly-formed Pakistan, often believing the move was temporary. Some, like the grandfather of this author, believed it was only a temporary measure – so all furniture in his home in Dera Ismail Khan was covered with sheets so dust wouldn't settle before they came back from Delhi – a strange city where no one spoke their language. They never returned. A city bursting at seams While Partition shaped the subcontinent, redefining global geopolitics, it also transformed Delhi, the new capital of free India. 'As refugees reached Delhi, the city was bursting at its seams… Delhi was larger than the city. Shahjahanabad was the city, then there was Lutyens' Delhi, and the rest were villages,' said oral historian Aanchal Malhotra, author of Remnants of a Separation. The 1941 census recorded Delhi's population at 917,939. By 1951, after the influx of Hindu and Sikh refugees and the departure of many Muslims, it had nearly doubled to 1.74 million. 'Delhi's villages were dominated by agricultural land-owning families. But after 1947, demography and landscape changed… As my grandparents always said, 'The Punjabis had taken over Delhi!'' said Ekta Chauhan, an assistant professor at Jindal School of Art and Architecture, whose book Sheher Mein Gaon looks at Delhi's urban villages, and also explores how 1947 changed it. Her grandfather, from a now-forgotten village called Dhakka near Kingsway recalled how refugee camps came up there, how Khirkee mosque sheltered riot-hit Hindus and Muslims, and how colonies like Malviya Nagar, Rajendra Nagar, and Lajpat Nagar began to take shape. Camps, mosques, monuments turned homes City chronicler Sohail Hashmi recalls that Delhi's response to the refugee crisis was improvised and desperate. 'The elite got plots as compensation for property lost in Pakistan, but most came with nothing. People lived wherever they could—Humayun's Tomb, Feroz Shah Kotla, Purana Qila, even the arches of Kashmere Gate.' Official orders from the Prime Minister's office in 1947 stated that the 'task of accommodating refugees was to be treated with the gravity of a national emergency.' By 1950, 21 colonies had been built, including Azadpur, Patel Nagar, Shakti Nagar, Geeta Colony, and Sheikh Sarai – most of them U-shaped neighbourhoods with a park in the centre. By the early 1950s, Sahni's father finally accepted Delhi as home, buying land in Patel Nagar. 'My mother cycled from there to her job at All India Radio,' said Kalpana. By the end of the decade, 3,000 acres had been allotted to 300,000 refugees, split between abandoned houses and new one- or two-storey dwellings. The Delhi Development Authority, created in 1957, aimed to provide affordable modern housing for the growing middle class. What also emerged in the late '50s and '60s were neighbourhoods named after places left behind: Multan Dhanda in Paharganj, Mianwali Nagar in the west, Gujranwala Town and Kohat Enclave in the north., while several Sindhi families settled in N-Block, Rajinder Nagar. SK Gulati and Vijay Adlakha, heads of the All-India Mianwali District Association, remember the stories they heard from their families. 'They lost money, land, jewellery, people. In 1966, we were allotted plots in what became Mianwali Nagar – so far away, no roads, no amenities. Only 70 families moved in at first. I was scared there might be snakes!' Over time, it became home. Markets of the displaced Refugees didn't just build homes – they also built markets. Janpath, Lajpat Nagar, and Khan Market all emerged in this period. In his book India After Gandhi, historian Ramachandra Guha describes Connaught Place in 1948-49 , lined with makeshift stalls and pushcarts. 'Had (RT) Russell (who designed the shopping arcade) ever seen what became of his creation, he would perhaps have been 'spinning in his grave like a dervish',' wrote Guha. Malhotra's grandparents met in a refugee camp, married in 1955, and moved to a cramped one-room quarter in Haqeeqat Nagar, shared with a dozen relatives. Her grandmother's job at the relief ministry eventually brought them to Netaji Subhash Nagar, then just a deserted field. 'By then, my grandfather had set up Bahrisons Booksellers in Khan Market and he would cycle to work there,' recalled Malhotra. Sanjiv Mehra, president of the Khan Market Traders Association, recalls his father being allotted a shop there for ₹6,556 in 1950 – two years after his family moved to Delhi from Lahore and then Amritsar. 'Before it became a refugee market, it had army barracks' shops. By the early '60s, it had department stores, tent houses, bookstores, a Chinese-run shoe shop, and Alfina, a Mughlai-Continental restaurant. These shops were allotted to people from Jhang, Peshawar, Dera Ismail Khan among others and the market really picked up when people started living in Defence Colony and Nizamuddin areas,' he reminisced. Nearby, two neighbourhood markets—Meherchand (1960) and Khanna (1954)—were named after relief minister Meher Chand Khanna. Refugee businesses supported each other, Malhotra said. 'Refugees sought out other refugee businesses – there was a shared past. My grandfather, for instance, loved eating at Pindi in Pandara Road, because that too was built by a refugee. It brought him solace,' she said. A transformed culture As business boomed and the city underwent a cultural shift, the changes impacted the agricultural land-owning populace that had not expected such a churn. 'Suddenly my village saw people who didn't look or speak like them. The women were more visible in public; the men didn't depend on farming,' said Chauhan. 'My grandparents told me that the Punjabis brought with them the culture of taking flour and sugar to local bakeries to turn them into biscuits; they popularised the tandoor; they had covers for blankets, which my grandparents found absurd.' There was a marked shift. 'The refugees were all culturally different, they spoke a different language, they were hustlers who set up businesses, and were entrepreneurial,' said Malhotra. Once the refugees realised that permanent houses will take time, makeshift schools and markets sprang up in and around the refugee camps. 'In the early 1940s, Salwan Public School came up in Peshawar and one of the founding members was Meherchand Khanna, who became India's relief and rehabilitation minister. The Salwans too moved to Delhi and restarted the school from a refugee camp. It ran in two shifts – morning for girls, evening for boys,' said Malhotra. Memories that refuse to fade As refugees added to the pot their own flavours, dealt with the trauma and grief of losing home and people, the city evolved – once again. But the scars of the Partition never truly left. Sahni went on to write the Partition epic Tamas, which dealt with the communal fires that had been stoked in the nation, as well as Amritsar Aa Gaya Hai , a short story on the horrors a group of refugees witnessed on their journey. Some, like the author's great-grandmother, spent every spare rupee looking for her younger brother, from 1947 to 1990. He didn't board the train from Pakistan. While others remembered what was once home till their last breath. 'A few years ago, I inquired about my neighbour in Patel Nagar, and found out that he had slipped into dementia and would often walk out of the house looking for camels. It was then that I found out that his family reared camels back in Pakistan,' said Kalpana.
Hindustan Times
an hour ago
- Hindustan Times
Choice to marry someone from different faith safeguarded by Constitution: Delhi High Court
New Delhi The choice to marry someone from a different faith is safeguarded under the fundamental right to life and personal liberty, even if it challenges social norms and family expectations, the Delhi High Court has held. (Representative photo) The choice to marry someone from a different faith is safeguarded under the fundamental right to life and personal liberty, even if it challenges social norms and family expectations, the Delhi High Court has held, while directing the Delhi Police to continue protecting an interfaith couple facing threats from their families. A bench of justice Sanjeev Narula made the observation on August 8, while dealing with a plea filed by a 26-year-old Muslim man and a 25-year-old Hindu woman, seeking police protection and accommodation in a safe house. In a petition filed last month, the couple asserted that despite solemnising their marriage after a relationship of over seven years, there was strong opposition from the woman's family. The petition said that despite writing to the deputy commissioner of police for the southeast district on July 23, requesting police protection, the police forcibly separated the woman from her husband and detained her at Nirmal Chhaya Shelter Home on July 24. The plea stated that the woman married the man voluntarily, without any coercion. On July 25, the high court directed the DCP to look into the matter personally and, if the woman affirmed her wish to live with her husband, to ensure appropriate arrangements for the couple's safety. The counsel for the woman's father, on August 8, asserted that his client was deeply troubled by his daughter's decision to marry the man without his consent and that he was concerned for his daughter's welfare. Considering the contentions, the court directed Delhi Police to continue providing them protection and accommodation in a safe house, till they solemnise their marriage under the Special Marriage Act. The bench said that parents' anguish over their daughter choosing her life partner without consultation cannot eclipse the right of an adult to choose a life partner, since Article 21 of the Constitution safeguards an individual's right to marry a person of one's choice. 'The constitutional guarantee under Article 21 enables every adult citizen may shape the course of their own life, free from fear, coercion or unlawful restraint. The choice to marry, especially across lines of faith, may test the resilience of social norms and familial expectations, yet in law, it remains a matter of personal liberty and individual autonomy, immune from any external veto. While the anguish of a parent is understandable, it cannot eclipse the rights of a major to select their life partner,' the court said. It added, 'The court is mindful of the anguish of the girl's father, who opposes the relationship on grounds that he perceives as legitimate and rooted in his concern for his daughter's welfare. However, upon attaining the age of majority, the right to make decisions regarding marriage becomes the individual's personal prerogative. Parental preference, however well-intentioned, cannot legally override that autonomy.' Noting the couple's allegation of being forcibly separated, the court directed the DCP to submit a report on whether any unlawful separation had occurred and, if so, to identify the officer responsible. The direction came after the woman claimed she was taken to a shelter home by the police against her will, while the police maintained that no coercion, unlawful action, or procedural lapse had taken place. The matter will next be heard on September 12. The same bench, in a similar plea filed by another couple, also ruled that a family's disapproval cannot override the right of two consenting adults to choose each other as life partners and live together peacefully. 'The right of two consenting adults to choose each other as life partners and to live together in peace is a facet of their personal liberty, privacy, and dignity protected under Article 21. Family disapproval cannot curtail that autonomy,' the court said in an order on August 5.
India Today
2 hours ago
- India Today
Asaduddin Owaisi Exclusive Podcast with Preeti Choudhry
Asaduddin Owaisi on Godse, Razakars, Malegaon Verdict, and India-Pakistan Cricket: An UnPolitics Interview. Asaduddin Owaisi, a five-time Member of Parliament, asserted that 'Godse was the first terrorist of independent India,' linking it to the recent Malegaon blast verdict. He stated that 'terrorism has become a new religion' and criticized the narrative of 'Hindu terror.' Owaisi categorically denied any historical connection between his political party and the Razakars, calling such claims 'all lies' and a 'figment of the BJP's imagination.' He referenced the Pandit Sundar Lal report regarding 'Operation Polo' in Hyderabad. The AIMIM President also announced a personal boycott of the India-Pakistan cricket match, citing ongoing terrorism and suspended diplomatic ties. He detailed his participation in diplomatic delegations to Gulf countries, aiming to counter Pakistan's 'false propaganda.' Furthermore, Owaisi confirmed an alliance offer to the RJD leadership for the Bihar elections, emphasizing the goal to defeat the BJP and NDA. He also spoke about his 'Jai Palestine' slogan in Parliament, urging the Prime Minister to condemn the 'genocide' in Gaza and send aid.
