Karnataka High Court asks DCs to appear before it if effective steps not taken over burial grounds

The Karnataka high court has asked the respective Deputy Commissioners of the districts to be present on the next date of hearing if effective steps for formalisation and handing over of the burial grounds are not taken in respect of lands identified at 606 villages in 16 districts.

A division bench headed by Justice G Narendar passed this order after it was alleged in a contempt petition that 319 villages still do not have the facilities. The bench has posted the petition to June 22 for further consideration.

The bench was hearing the contempt petition filed by Mohammed Iqbal. The complainant had filed a PIL and the high court had passed an order on August 20, 2019. In the contempt petition, he claimed that the state government failed to comply with the order to provide for burial grounds within a period of six weeks in all the villages and towns.

The state government claimed that 99.8% of the villages in the state have been provided with burial grounds with only five villages needed to be provided with the facility. It was further submitted that though lands have been identified and mutating revenue entries has been completed in these villages, formalization of handing over to the local body is yet to be completed. The government advocate said that in view of the assembly elections, the state’s resources were diverted and hence the handing over would be completed in a short time.

On the other hand, the complainant claimed that still 319 villages have not been provided with the burial grounds. According to the complainant, out of the 29,616 villages, 27,903 have been provided with burial grounds with another 1,394 villages being uninhabited becharak villages. It was claimed that in 1,976 villages, the identified lands are required to be handed over and in another 2,419 villages entries are to be made in the RTC. He submitted that around 4,770 burial grounds are to be considered as not for public use in view of encroachments and non entry in revenue records.