Chennai: HC relief to man seeking grandpa's burial

Chennai, Jan 6: Coming to the aid of a man who sought protection from upper caste villagers opposed to him taking a pathway to bury his deceased grandfather, the Madras High Court on Jan 5 directed police in Nagapattinam district to give adequate protection to see no untoward incident takes place in completing the last rites.

Justice M M Sundresh, before whom the petition in this regard came up today, was informed by the Special Government Pleader that the Nagapattinam District Collector had stated there was no difficulty in laying a thoroughfare to reach the burial ground and also that appropriate protection would be given to the petitioner in the event of any objection.

The judge, after recording the statement, in his order reiterated that it is the duty of all district authorities to see that the petitioner, along with the body of his deceased centanarian grandfather, was in a position to reach the burial ground without any hindrance and disposed of the petition.

Petitioner M Sankar had submitted that though his grandfather died on January 3, he could not be buried for two days as upper caste people prevented him from using the path leading to the burial ground.

Sankar said his grandfather died at his native place in Vazhuvur where they were prevented from using the common burial ground. They were using a portion of the land on the bund of Makimaiaru river from time immemorial. But there was no pucca road to the burial ground.

The local upper class people (Vanniars) prevented them from using this path, the petitioner had contended. Admitting the petition yesterday, the court had observed that equality eludes a person till death starting from birth, and directed the Nagaipattinam district administration and police to swiftly act on the man's plea.

PTI