The Supreme Court on Wednesday reserved its order on a petition challenging the Chhattisgarh High Court’s January 9 ruling denying a Christian pastor’s son the right to bury his father’s body at a graveyard in Bastar’s Chhindawada village, Live Law reported.

The court emphasised that the right to “a decent burial” is of utmost importance and called for the matter to be resolved peacefully but urgently.

The court had on Monday said that it was pained that the Chhattisgarh government and High Court had not been able to resolve the complaint of Ramesh Baghel, who has not been able to bury his father Subhash due to objections from residents.

Subhash, a senior citizen, died on January 7 due to illness and his body has been kept in a mortuary since.

Baghel moved the Supreme Court after the Chhattisgarh High Court rejected his plea on January 9.

The High Court, in its order, noted that the Christian community does not have a separate graveyard in the village but a separate burial ground in Karkapal village, about 20 to 25 km away.

During the hearing on Wednesday, Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, appearing for the State of Chattishgarh reiterated that the burial must take place at the “designated” graveyard in Karkapal. He said the case was a matter of maintaining law and order and needed to be dealt with sensitively.

He explained that due to the small Christian population in Chhindawada, no separate burial space was designated for them. He claimed that the land where the petitioner wanted to bury his father was reserved for Hindu tribals, who were not in favour of allowing anyone else to be buried there, The Indian Express reported.

Veteran advocate Colin Gonsalves, representing the petitioner presented revenue maps to the court and argued that Christian tribals have been buried in Chhindawada before, highlighting that this case was being treated differently only because the deceased had converted to Christianity.

Gonsalves argued that this was a case of “patent discrimination” that has led to “communalism” of the dead man, Live Law reported.

“If there is a designated area, you can bury him there…This should be an exclusive Christian graveyard where they will not be disturbed,” Justice BV Nagarathna observed orally.

The court has directed the state government to submit a new affidavit detailing the “designated” graveyard’s size, location and whether, as claimed by authorities, it has been used by Christians from four nearby villages in Bastar district, The Hindu reported.

Baghel told The Indian Express that it was his father’s last wish to be buried next to his family members. Baghel’s grandfather had converted to Christianity over 30 years ago. The grandfather and Baghel’s aunt are buried in the village graveyard.

“Everything was peaceful until two years ago when a group of villagers from a strong political outfit started provoking others in our village asking them to socially boycott Christians and stop them from burying bodies in the village’s graveyard [as reprisal] for converting to the religion,” he said.

He claimed in his petition that the village residents were not allowing him to bury the body at another plot of land owned by his family. Baghel claimed that the residents had stopped at least one other Christian family from burying a relative in the graveyard.

“[The police] have also threatened that if the dead body is buried as per Christian rites in their village they will take legal action against the petitioner and his family,” PTI cited Baghel’s plea as claiming.

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