New Delhi: Supreme Court Exhuming the bodies of tribal Christians in some villages in Chhattisgarh state and moving them to cemeteries designated by religious groups has been temporarily halted as an NGO said the act violated the fundamental rights of local Christians to be buried in villages. A bench of Justices Vikram Nath and Sandeep Mehta on Wednesday agreed to hear a petition by NGO Chhattisgarh Association for Justice and Equality after senior lawyer Colin Gonsalves cited the Supreme Court’s split judgment on a plea seeking to bury the body of a priest in his village or farmland. While one judge allowed the petitioner to bury his father’s body on his private land, another judge said no citizen had the unconditional right to choose where to be buried. Following a split decision in January last year, the bench directed that the body be buried in a designated cemetery 25 to 30 kilometers away from the village in Chhattisgarh. After hearing Gonsalves, Justices Nath and Mehta sought the Chhattisgarh government’s response to the PIL and ordered that no further exhumation of the bodies be allowed.Gonsalves accused the state government of misusing the secession verdict to prevent the burial of tribal Christians in village precincts. The senior advocate said the court must intervene to direct that every deceased person, irrespective of religion, caste or status, has the right to be buried in a place demarcated in his/her village.The petitioners said the authorities should be directed to demarcate land for burial in those villages where there are no designated cemeteries.Interestingly, Justices Nath and Mehta on Monday refused to entertain a petition challenging the Chhattisgarh High Court’s October 28, 2025 order directing the petitioners to approach statutory authorities over their grievances against gram sahas, which had put up hoardings to bar entry of Christian priests and priests, purportedly to prevent conversions through temptation.
