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British Hindu loses open-air cremation case

LONDON: A devout British Hindu on Friday lost his protracted legal battle for the right to be cremated on an open-air funeral pyre which is illegal in Britain. Davender Ghai (70), whose case has divided Hindu opinion in Britain, had gone to the High Court after being refused permission by the local council to set up an open-air cremation site in Northumberland, north-east England, in 2006.

But the court upheld the ban saying it was “justified” and consistent with the Cremation Act of 1902.

“The Cremation Act 1902 and its attendant 2008 regulations are clear in their effect: the burning of human remains, other than in a crematorium, is a criminal offence.

“This effectively prohibits open-air funeral pyres,” Mr. Justice Cranston ruled. But he gave Mr. Ghai permission to take his case to the Court of Appeal.

“I don’t think there is a real prospect of success, but it seems to me sufficiently a matter of public importance for me to give permission to appeal,” the judge observed.

Mr. Ghai was reported as saying that he would “appeal until the very end, in the faith that my dying wish will not go unheard.”

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