{"id":2530,"date":"2007-04-11T14:52:26","date_gmt":"2007-04-11T14:52:26","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/tat.reddaisytrading.co.uk\/index.php\/2007\/04\/11\/new-hope-for-hindu-open-air-cremations\/"},"modified":"2016-01-06T16:48:22","modified_gmt":"2016-01-06T16:48:22","slug":"new-hope-for-hindu-open-air-cremations","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.theasiantoday.com\/index.php\/2007\/04\/11\/new-hope-for-hindu-open-air-cremations\/","title":{"rendered":"New hope for Hindu open-air cremations"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"content\">\n<div><strong><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" height=\"200\" hspace=\"10\" width=\"232\" align=\"right\" vspace=\"3\" alt=\"\" src=\"http:\/\/www.theasiantoday.com\/Image\/ArticleImages\/Openaircremation'Controversy'.jpg\"\/>BRITAIN\u2019S Hindu community may be able to conduct open-air cremations after a High Court judge backed a religious charity\u2019s bid to challenge a local authority who refused to allow the traditional Hindu funeral.<\/strong> <\/div>\n<p>&#13;<\/p>\n<div>Davender Kumar Ghai, a 68-year-old devout Hindu and president of the Anglo-Asian Friendship Society, challenged Newcastle Crown Court who ruled that an open-air cremation performed last year on the body of a 31-year-old Indian illegal immigrant was illegal, the Times reported. <\/div>\n<p>&#13;<\/p>\n<div>Mr Ghai has presided over the open-air cremation of Rajpal Mehat who was found drowned in a London canal. Newcastle council had ruled that the ceremony was illegal under the Cremation Act 1902. <\/div>\n<p>&#13;<\/p>\n<div>Police investigated the incident and passed a file to the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS). It ruled that an offence had been committed but that prosecution would not be in the public interest. <\/div>\n<p>&#13;<\/p>\n<div>Since the case Mr Ghai, who wishes to be cremated on an open-air pyre when he dies, has challenged the validity of the authority\u2019s decision. <\/div>\n<p>&#13;<\/p>\n<div>And a breakthrough for the charity made news yesterday when a High Court judge approved Mr Ghai\u2019s bid to seek a judicial review of the authority\u2019s decision. <\/div>\n<p>&#13;<\/p>\n<div>Mr Justice Collins ruled that it was in the public interest to allow the application because the issue was \u201cof some considerable importance to the Hindu community\u201d. <\/div>\n<p>&#13;<\/p>\n<div>He also noted that rulings in 1884 and 1907 \u201cmay mean that the burning of dead bodies in the open air is not necessarily unlawful\u201d. <\/div>\n<p>&#13;<\/p>\n<div>If successful in his bid, Mr Ghai could pave the way for more than 560,000 British Hindu\u2019s to opt for an open-air cremation. <\/div>\n<p>&#13;\n<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>BRITAIN\u2019S Hindu community may be able to conduct open-air cremations after a High Court judge backed a religious charity\u2019s bid to challenge a local authority who refused to allow the traditional Hindu funeral. &#13; Davender Kumar Ghai, a 68-year-old devout Hindu and president of the Anglo-Asian Friendship Society, challenged Newcastle Crown Court who ruled that [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":11753,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2530","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theasiantoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2530","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theasiantoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theasiantoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theasiantoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theasiantoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2530"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.theasiantoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2530\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theasiantoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/11753"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theasiantoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2530"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theasiantoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2530"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theasiantoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2530"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}