The Supreme Court directed the state government to dispose of the bodies kept in mortuaries for months if the relatives did not claim them in two weeks for final rites at nine designated sites, scotching attempts by some civil society organisations to inflame tensions in Manipur by preventing relatives from claiming the bodies of people killed during the ethnic conflict.
“We do not want to keep the pot boiling over dead bodies,” said a bench of CJI D Y Chandrachud, Justices J B Pardiwala and Manoj Misra, which was disturbed by Justice Gita Mittal-led SC appointed Committee’s report that civil society organisations (CSOs) are preventing relatives from claiming 88 of 94 bodies stored at mortuaries since May when ethnic strife engulfed the state.
The Supreme Court further instructed police superintendents and collectors in the districts where the nine crematorium/burial sites have been designated to enable the last rites to be performed without "hindrance by any group or person." They were also urged to take all necessary actions to uphold law and order.
While directing dignified disposal of six unidentified bodies by the state within a week, the bench asked the state to inform relatives of each of the identified bodies and help them in reaching the mortuary for collecting the bodies, taking these to earmarked burial/ cremation sites and facilitate carrying out the last rites as per their religious custom. However, it clarified that if the relatives do not claim the bodies despite intimation, the state would be free to bury/cremate the unclaimed bodies a week after the intimation given to the next of kin.