Virus: Right to decent burial facet of right to life, says HC

MUMBAI: The right to a decent burial is recognized as a facet of the right to life and even in such a pandemic situation this right cannot be taken away from any person, the Bombay High Court said on Friday while holding that the Mumbai civic body had the power to designate any cemetery to dispose of bodies of COVID-19 patients.

A division bench of Chief Justice Dipankar Datta and Justice S S Shinde dismissed a bunch of petitions challenging an April 9 circular issued by the BMC designating 20 burial grounds and cemeteries in the city for disposing of bodies of persons who died due to COVID-19. "Right to a decent burial, commensurate with the dignity of the individual, is recognized as a facet of the right to life guaranteed by Article 21 of the Constitution.

There is, thus, no reason as to why an individual who dies during this period of crisis because of suspected/confirmed COVID-19 infection would not be entitled to the facilities he/ she would have otherwise been entitled to but for the crisis," the bench said in its order.

The court, quoting Oscar Wilde, said, "Death must be so beautiful. To lie in the soft brown earth, with the grasses waving above one's head, and listen to silence. To have no yesterday, and no tomorrow. To forget time, to forget life, to be at peace."

"We are sure, while preparing to embrace the painful truth, i.e., death, one would like to depart from life, the beautiful lie, with these soothing thoughts in mind. However, in the recent past, the situation in Mumbai posed uncertainties for quite a few. The havoc wreaked by Coronavirus was enough to cause disarray in their lives," the order said.