Unclaimed bodies should be burnt or buried by MCDs: Govt

The information was given in an affidavit filed in response to a plea that sought framing of guidelines on disposing of abandoned or unidentified bodies.

The Delhi government has informed the Delhi High Court that unidentified bodies or corpses should be given to charitable societies and if none of them come forward then they should be buried or burnt with due dignity by the municipal bodies.

The Delhi government has informed the Delhi High Court that unidentified bodies or corpses should be given to charitable societies and if none of them come forward then they should be buried or burnt with due dignity by the municipal bodies.

The information was given in an affidavit filed in response to a plea that sought framing of guidelines on disposing of abandoned or unidentified bodies. The PIL filed through advocate Shashank Deo Sudhi had alleged that unidentified or abandoned bodies are disposed of mechanically without performing the mandatory formalities.

The petition was moved by Ramanuj Pursotam, whose son had gone missing on December 4, 2017. His body was recovered on December 8 by police, which disposed it of two days later after postmortem.

In the affidavit, the Delhi government told the court that a meeting was held under the chairmanship of the chief secretary on March 28, wherein several decisions were made. The matter will be heard on May 27.