[GOTFIVEONIT]

INDIA

High court to decide whether to cremate or bury the dead

Saturday, 10 November 2007

Calcutta, November 10: A 70 year old woman’s body is lying in a morgue while her Hindu and Muslim children, from two different marriages, are locked in a legal battle in the Calcutta High Court over her last rites.

Pari Mallik’s Hindu childen want her to be cremated while her Muslim child wants her buried. Pari was born a Hindu, married a Hindu and had three children from her Hindu husband. After his death, she married a Muslim, converted to Islam and had a daughter from her Muslim husband. During her last days in hospital, both sets of children attended to her.

But after she died last week in a hospital in Howrah on the outskirts of Calcutta, they started squabbling over her funeral. The hospital chief, the local police station and even the Sub Divisional Officer (SDO) tried to resolve the dispute but failed to arrive at a formula acceptable to both sides.

Digging their heels in, the two sides filed a case in the Calcutta High Court demanding to perform her last rites. A verdict is expected to be delivered on Tuesday.

Pari first got married to Prasad Bakshi who fathered a son and two daughters Rabin, Basanti and Minu. After Bakshi's death, the mother of three fell in love with her Muslim tenant, Gorai Mallik, and married him. They had a daughter, Baby Mallik.

Although the children from her first marriage did not approve of her mother’s remarriage, they did not snap ties with her. Rabin died a few years ago. Basanti and Minu are happily married. So is Baby.

Baby, who now lives in Bombay with her husband, flew to Calcutta last week when she heard that Pari had been admitted to a hospital. Basanti, Minu and Rabin’s widow, Rina, also nursed Pari. But no sooner had Pari died that they fell out over her last rites and almost came to blows, according to reports.

Gorai Mallik and Baby are pitted against Basanti, Minu and Rina. Gorai, incidentally, is hospitalised undergoing treatment for cardiac complications.

After Howrah district hospital superintendent Nayan Chanda failed to break the stalemate, the unprecedented case was referred to the thana. The thana put the case in SDO Sunil Ranjan Sikdar's court. He spent two hours with the squabbling parties but no solution was found. Sikdar then advised the families to go to the high court for resolution.

The high court promptly admitted the case and directed both sides to preserve the body in the Peace Heaven morgue. Pari’s neighbours say that she wanted to be buried. According to them, Gorai had purchased a patch of late in his native village for his grave and apparently Pari expressed a desire to be buried near her husband. -Agencies




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[Variable]

This is why it's important to leave very specific instructions... especially when you're 70.

[GOTFIVEONIT]

Originally Posted by Variable

This is why it's important to leave very specific instructions... especially when you're 70.

and that too lay dying in a hospital bed. i know that here in the united states, the widow or widower have the final authority on performing the last rites. but in India, the law is much different, and often very chaotic, especially when taken into account the different religious laws that are applicable.

[SaidAbdullahofDarfur]

Don't see the problem, she died muslim, so she should be treated as a muslim in the Indian court system...right?

[GOTFIVEONIT]

Originally Posted by SaidAbdullahofDarfur

Don't see the problem, she died muslim, so she should be treated as a muslim in the Indian court system...right?

technically you are right. in this case, according to muslim personal law, the courts in india cannot intervene, because religious law comes first above secular laws, therefore the secular courts cannot have any say over this matter. thats how the law works.