Ashutosh case: HC adjourns hearing to March 19

The Punjab and Haryana high court on Monday adjourned the hearing on an appeal against the last rites of Ashutosh, the "clinically dead" sect head of the Divya Jyoti Jagriti Sansthan (DJJS), Nurmahal (Jalandhar). The case would now be heard on March 19.

During the hearing on Monday, the HC issued notices on another appeal filed by four disciples of Ashutosh, who have contended that the contentions raised by them were taken into account in the December 1, 2014, order, but they were not mentioned as respondents, due to which they had lost the right to appeal before the higher courts against that order.

On December 1, a high court single-judge bench had declared Ashutosh "clinically dead" and directed the Punjab government to cremate Ashutosh within 15 days. However, on December 15, a division bench stayed the order. The appeal against the order has been filed by the Punjab government, the DJJS and Dalip Kumar Jha, who claims to be Ashutosh's son.

The sect head was declared "clinically dead" by doctors in January 2014. His mortal remains are lying in a deep freezer on the dera premises since then as his followers claim that he is in 'samadhi' (state of deep meditation).