A HINDU fighting for the right to be cremated on a traditional funeral pyre took his case to the Court of Appeal yesterday.
Spiritual healer Davender Ghai, 71, who believes that a pyre is essential to “a good death” and the release of his spirit into the afterlife, was refused permission to be cremated according to his Hindu beliefs by Newcastle City Council.
Mr Ghai, from Gosforth, lost his challenge at the High Court in London in May last year, when Mr Justice Cranston ruled that pyres were prohibited by law.
Yesterday, Rambert de Mello, representing Mr Ghai, told Lord Neuberger that the pyre would be made of wood, and that the site could be surrounded by walls and the pyre covered with a roof that had an opening.
Lord Neuberger said that if it could be shown those requirements complied with the Cremation Act 1902, “that will be the end of the case”.
Jonathan Swift, representing the Ministry of Justice, which is opposing the appeal, said the law stipulated that cremations must be in a building, which meant a structure bounded by walls with a roof.
He said what Mr Ghai was proposing did not comply with the law, which was there to protect “decorum and decency”.
The judges will give a ruling at a later date.
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