Mr Ghai was refused a cremation permit by Newcastle City Council in 2006
A devout Hindu has won his bid for the right to be cremated on a traditional funeral pyre.
Davender Ghai, 71, was seeking to overturn a 2006 Newcastle City Council decision forbidding him from being cremated according to his beliefs.
Last year his challenge was dismissed by the High Court, but that ruling has been overturned at the Court of Appeal.
Judges decided the pyre would be lawful after Mr Ghai said it could include walls and a roof with an opening.
Today's verdict has breathed new life into an old man's dreams
In February 2006, the founder of the Anglo-Asian Friendship Society (AAFS), from Gosforth, Newcastle, was refused a permit for a cremation site in a remote part of Northumberland.
Newcastle City Council said the burning of human remains anywhere outside a crematorium was prohibited under the 1902 Cremation Act.
The Ministry of Justice, which opposed the appeal case, had backed the local authority's decision.
But the Court of Appeal judges accepted that Mr Ghai was willing to be cremated within existing rules with his funeral pyre "enclosed in a structure" and ruled that the Ministry of Justice definition of a building was too narrow.
Delivering the verdict, Master of the Rolls, Lord Neuberger, who headed the appeal panel, said: "Contrary to what everyone seems to have assumed below, and I am not saying it is anyone's fault, it seems to us that Mr Ghai's religious and personal beliefs as to how his remains should be cremated once he dies can be accommodated within current cremation legislation."
'Clarify law'
Mr Ghai said the ruling had "breathed new life into an old man's dreams".
He said: "I always maintained that I wanted to clarify the law, not disobey or disrespect it.
"The Court of Appeal understood my request was consistent with both the spirit and letter of the law and my only regret is that tax payers' money would have been saved had that been recognised in 2006.
"My request was often misinterpreted, leading many to believe I wanted a funeral pyre cremation in an open field, whereas I always accepted that buildings and permanent structures would be appropriate."
He added: "All the time I had complete faith that justice would be done. Now I can go in peace."
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/tyne/8507811.stm
21 comments:
He'll be able to appear on the BNP Election broadcast now !
Delivering the verdict Lord Neuberger.
To paraphrase Mel Gibson "have you got a dog in the fight ?"
griffin can do a duet with lindisfarne and they can all sing wog on the tyne.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dF5xVnTo8gs
I can't believe this. The most beautiful and unspoiled county in this country, the cradle of Christianity in Britain, to be polluted by flames from a Hindu funeral pyre. What next? Their own sanctified stretch of the Tyne to bathe in? The reintroduction of suttee? It's disgusting.
He'll be a bnp member - fighting the nasty muzzies - before long!
as long as he can send money to Rev Dowson, he'll be on Collette's badly designed leaflets before you can say "fill my pockets"
no mosques or temples wanted here! if these people do not accept our law's then they can go back to their own country. the sooner the better.
Is this what Gri££in wants as well? Once you give these Asians a inch they we take a mile! In Gri££in's book as long as they ain't Muslims they are OK.
North London Hindu school will be 'the first of many'
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/8486375.stm
Another one of Griffin's brown skinned pals. Imagine when they bring these knives to school? They could kill White children!
Sikh judge Sir Mota Singh criticises banning of Kirpan
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/8500712.stm
Sikh Curry poisoner, she's inviting Griffin around for a meal when she's released?
"Curry poisoning woman found guilty of murder"
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/london/8492936.stm
What a benefit to Britian these mates of Griffin?
‘The BBC is not responding to the Sikh community and we are thinking about organising a campaign to invoke the non-payment of licence fees by the 700,000 Sikhs in Britain.’
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1243800/BBCs-Sonia-Deol-forced-Facebook-Sikhs-furious-TV-film.html#ixzz0fA1xWjRZ
They will have to legalise suicide bombing now.
The floodgates are now breached.
For all those planning to attend the EGM on Sunday by public transport, the District line underground is closed between East Ham and Upminster and the C2C trains from Fenchurch Street station will terminate at Barking (special bus service to Upminster.) It will mean journey times will be a lot longer.
This really the final straw. I imagine that Arthur Kemp has justified this with some bullshit fairy tales about these people being as civilized and Aryan as we are.
And you'll surely get what you vote for this Sunday. Anyone voting against Griffin on the 14th can walk out of the EGM, head held high and with a clean conscience. Those who vote FOR his amended constitution will be scarred for life. Hope you can live with yourselves
'Lord' Neuberger, I wonder what ethnicity he is..........
Pip pip
Gri££in getting pre-EGM propaganda via the lefty multi-racial Guardian newspaper today?
"EVERY HINDU & SIKH SHOULD BE PRAISING THE BNP"
'Singh says, "but there's a good underlying cause. They will be diluted." Then he smiles. "All parties use people.'
http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2010/feb/11/bnp-nonwhites-members-sikh-join
i can live with my self lol
That Mr Singh is a disreputable and ungenuine individual. I'm sure he is state.
I would have a million times more faith and trust in an elderly West Indian who was dismayed at how Britain has gone to the dogs over the past 50 or so years, than an elderly Sikh with a grievance centring around matters of religion.
http://bnp.org.uk/2010/02/hindu-%E2%80%9Copen-air-cremation%E2%80%9D-bid-is-an-affront-to-british-law/
Fuck off!
maybe he can take a few of his mates with him.
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