The Punjab and Haryana High Court on Friday, 4 Dec 2020 asked for the response from deputy commissioner after noticing five cremation grounds have been marked for different communities in a village situated in Ambala District.
The Division Bench of Justice Jaswant Singh and Justice Sant Parkash asked for the response from common authorities in a writ petition to "administer all cremation grounds so as to remove the apprehension of the petitioners that they would not be permitted to avail the benefit of the existing cremation grounds for cremation of members of their communities".
The Court was hearing the plea of 8 person in which one is Jaswant Kumar (76) and seven other villagers who claimed before the Court that Brahmins, Sikhs and Backward Classes had separate cremation grounds in the area.
As per the report it was claimed by the petitioner and other members of the community that they were denied and eventually left out from the last ritual they perform for the departed souls as all fiver cremation grounds in village were community wise.
They sought the quashing of the order passed on 11 September 2020 by the Deputy Commissioner wherein the application of the Petitioners' was rejected in "complete violation of the principles of natural justice", presuming that there was no cremation ground as they have mentioned in their complaint. The petitioners added that the same stood "illegally demolished" with the help of earth movers.
The attorneys appearing for the petitioners asked the Deputy Commissioner and another respondent to restore the things to usual. The cremation grounds belonging to various communities i.e Brahmins and Backward classes should be restored to residents belonging to these communities.
They further pled for a direction to respondent nos. 2 and 3 to restore the cremation ground to respective petitioners.
The matter has been scheduled for further hearing on January 13 2021.
Case Title: Jaswant Singh and others vs State of Haryana and others [CWP No. 20810 of 2020]
