Jamait moves SC to oppose any stay on burial in Mumbai cemeteries

New Delhi: The Jamiat Ulama-i-Hind has moved the Supreme Court along with the Navpada Masjid Bandra and Santa Cruz Golibar Dargah Trust to oppose any stay on the burial of Covid-19 patients in two Mumbai cemeteries on the grounds that burial is an essential rite for the followers of Islam.

In separate petitions, the three organisations said all precautions were being taken during burials and no instance of any transmission had been recorded. Locals had opposed burials in the cemeteries in Bandra West near crowded residential colonies in

Mumbai saying it was a health hazard. The Bombay HC had on April 27 refused to stay the burials. Petitioner Pradeep Gandhy then moved the SC in appeal against the move.


The petitioner contended that he feared that the burial of dead bodies of such persons who were infected with Covid-19 would risk spreading of the virus in the neighbouring area where he lived and sought a temporary ban on such burials.

The trust, on the other hand, claimed that the cemeteries it runs had been notified by the municipal corporation as a place where such burials could take place.