Bill on body disposal is withdrawn by the government when Congress opposes

Following protests from Congress MLAs, the government withdrew the Haryana Honourable Disposal of Dead Body Bill, 2024, today.

Congress MLA Varun Chaudhary criticized the system, saying that “no one wants to delay the cremation of their near and dear ones.” The parties need to have a fair hearing. There is no provision for it in the Bill.

Congress chief whip BB Batra brought up the point that, after the Executive Magistrate’s ruling requiring an urban local body or gram panchayat to cremate a cadaver in the event that the family declined, there was no recourse open to the impacted party under the Bill. He noted that there was no provision in the Bill for an appeal of the Executive Magistrate’s order.

The Bill said that if an officer in charge of a police station had grounds to suspect, “personal knowledge or otherwise,” that a family member or group of people could use the corpse for protest, that officer might seize the body and dispose of it. Batra questioned the authority of the police station commander and brought up the Bill’s definition of “personal knowledge.”