Madras High Court moved for decent burial of COVID-19 victims

Citing incidents of protests by locals against burial of COVID-19 victims in their area over fears of spread of coronavirus, a PIL was filed in the Madras High on Monday seeking to invoke provisions of the stringent Goondas Act against those indulging in such inhuman acts.

A decent burial/cremation was a fundamental right of every citizen of this country guaranteed under Article 21 of the Constitution and it cannot be denied under the garb of protests, petitioner A P Suryaprakasam, an advocate, said.

Authorities were prevented by residents of a locality in Kilpauk here on Sunday from cremating the body of a neurologist who died of COVID-19 infection, he said in the public interest litigation petition, likely to be taken up for hearing this week.

The ambulance in which the body was taken and its driver were attacked, he said adding such people have not only violated law, but also committed a grave crime against humanity.

The failure on part of the police to register an FIR and arrest such people have emboldened them to deprive the victims of COVID-19 a decent burial, he added.

He pleaded the court to direct the Chennai police Commissioner to invoke provisions of the Goondas Act against those preventing burial of people who die of coronavirus and provide adequate police protection.

Earlier this month, when a doctor from Nellore in Andhra Pradesh died of COVID-19, his cremation was delayed after residents of a city area objected to it. The body had to be taken back to the hospital mortuary and later cremated in another locality.