High Court orders exhuming of bodies from private cemetery

The Madras High Court has directed exhumation of bodies buried in a private church cemetery near Madananthapuram village, under Alandur Taluk, stating that burials must take place solely in officially designated and licensed burial grounds.

- HD Bureau

The directive delivers clarity on longstanding regulatory ambiguity for urban and suburban burial practices.

Justice N. Mala, hearing a writ petition filed by a construction firm from Tirupur challenging a burial licence granted by the Greater Chennai Corporation, set aside the licence issued on 27 February 2024 for a plot of land attached to the CSI St. Matthew’s Church and held by S. Albert Kings Bell. The court found procedural and statutory violations in its issuance, describing the approval as granted “with undue haste” and thus “mala fide and arbitrary”.

The landowner has been ordered to exhume the bodies within twelve weeks. If the exhumation is not carried out, the court has authorized the GCC to do so and recover costs from the landowner.