K’taka govt gets two weeks to reply to objections on not providing graveyards in villages

Bengaluru: The Karnataka High Court directed the government to get back in two weeks on the objections raised by the petitioners over steps taken as directed by the court to provide land for dignified and traditional cremation/burials across all villages in the state.

The court continued to hear a civil contempt petition filed by Muhammad Iqbal, a resident of Bengaluru, on Wednesday. The petitioner had objected to the government’s failure to comply with the High Court’s earlier judgement to provide necessary land to villages and towns without graveyards in the state.

The division bench of Justices P S Dinesh Kumar and T G Shivashankare Gowda, after hearing the argument for some time, adjourned the proceedings and directed the state to give an explanation within two weeks to the objections raised by the petitioner regarding the compliance report of the government.

On August 20, 2019, the High Court had ordered that all the populated villages in the state should be allotted cemetery land for cremation and the encroached government land should be cleared.

The contempt petition states that the government had failed to comply with the order.

In his objection to the government’s compliance report, the petitioner said that when a Dalit person died last month in Arkalgud town of Hassan district, the cremation took place in front of the deceased person’s house as there was no other place for conducting the last rites.

He claimed to have visited the place personally. He has also claimed that when the High Court order was delivered in 2019, the encroached government land was more than 11.77 lakh acres. Now, it has increased to 14.62 lakh acres.

Several examples of villages without graveyards/cemeteries have been placed before the court by the petitioner.