THE GUARDIAN: Davender Ghai, 70, says he is being discriminated against on grounds of race and religion
An elderly Hindu man will today ask the high court for the right to have an open-air cremation , claiming that to deny him such a ritual "will enslave his soul in endless earthly entrapment".
Davender Ghai, 70, is challenging Newcastle city council's decision to refuse him an open-air cremation when he dies. He claims that this refusal discriminates against him on the grounds of race and religion, contrary to equality and race relation laws. If successful, say his lawyers, the case could set a precedent for designated natural cremation sites around the country.
They also described today's review as "the most controversial religious freedom case in British legal history".
The local authority argues that open-air funeral pyres are outlawed by the 1902 Cremation Act. In 2006, it blocked his attempt to establish Britain's first approved site for burning bodies outdoors. Ghai, however, claims to have tested the law in July 2006, when he lit the funeral pyre of Rajpal Mehat in Northumberland.
In a witness statement to be read out in court today, Ghai says he is asking for equality not exemption.
"Local authorities routinely provide separate Muslim and Jewish burial grounds and out-of-hours registration and immediate or weekend burials. Hindus should cremate before the following sunset, too, and yet we, along with the general public, wait for up to a week.
"No one expects Hindus to marry in a church so why are Hindu funerals shoehorned through chapels of rest designed like Anglican churches?" >>> Riazat Butt, Religious Affairs Correspondent | Tuesday, March 24, 2009
