CHENNAI: When right of entry to temples, hospitals or any public office is equal to all, irrespective of religion or caste, why should there be a

burial/cremation ground for

alone, wondered the

on Monday. It also directed the state government to explain the issue.

A division bench of Justices S Manikumar and Subramonium Prasad directed the Vellore collector and Vaniyambadi tahsildar to explain ‘why dalit community is stated to have ‘air-dropped’ a dead body; and why a place is exclusively earmarked for the burial of dalits and the logic behind it, when all of them are

’.

The bench made the observations and passed the interim directions while hearing a suo moto PIL initiated after taking cognizance of a news report published in TOI, exposing denial of right of way to dalits to their cremation ground on the banks of river Palar by two upper caste Hindus, forcing them to lower their dead from a 20-foot-high bridge.

On Thursday, the court initiated the suo motu proceeding after assistant solicitor general G Karthikeyan brought the issue to the notice of the bench. When the plea came up for hearing on Monday, the bench expressed shock over the submissions made by the tahsildar that a separate land has been exclusively earmarked for dalits to cremate their deceased.

Censuring the authorities for adopting such a discriminatory practice, the bench said that as per Article 14 of the Constitution, every citizen is entitled to equality before law or equal protection of laws within the territory of India, and wondered what was the need for a separate or earmarked space to bury persons based on their caste, that too when everyone falls under the category of Hindu.

The court posted the PIL to August 28 for the collector and the tahsildar to file their respective reports on the incident and earmarking separate space to cremate dalits.