Widows can’t agree whether their husband should be buried or cremated

Call it an identity crisis with a life of its own, if you will. The Madras High Court on Thursday came across a case of a relentless fight between two widows of a dead man on the issue of whether his body should be buried as per Christian practices or cremated in accordance with Hindu customs.

Justice P.N. Prakash gave the widows, professing different faiths, two days’ time to arrive at a compromise because it was already a week since their husband Dhakshinamoorthy died, and directed the police to dispose of the body in the manner known to law if the women failed to reach a consensus.

It all started when the first wife D. Thangammal and her two sons D. Janakiraman and D. Saravanan filed a joint petition before the High Court seeking a direction to the Inspector of Otteri police station at Vandalur near here to provide protection for performing the last rites to the deceased.

Subsequently, D. Hemalatha, a daughter born through his second his wife D. Gowri alias Yesumary, also approached the High Court, and she too sought a direction to the same Inspector of Police to provide protection for burying the body of her father as per Roman Catholic rites and customs.

When the judge inquired into the matter, he found that the deceased had left behind a Will stating that he wanted his body to be buried at Kolappakam near here as per Christian practices. However, the Will contained his thumb impression instead of signatures and it was registered exactly on August 16, the day when he died.

Two days’ time given

Ms. Thangammal disputed the genuineness of the Will and claimed that there was every possibility of Ms. Yesumary having got the thumb impression of their husband without his consent since he was living with the second wife at the time of his death. The quarrel between them spilled over to the local police station.

The police received complaints from both the sides and shifted the body to a government hospital mortuary to prevent it from putrefying. Holding that the validity of the Will could not be decided in direction petitions filed under Section 482 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, the judge said the body also could not be kept in the mortuary indefinitely.

He dismissed both the direction petitions and gave the widows two days’ time for reaching a settlement. “It is made clear that if the parties do not arrive at a compromise, it is open to the police to dispose of the body in the manner provided in the case of disposal of unclaimed bodies,” he ordered.

Mr. Justice Prakash concluded his order stating: “For some persons, even death does not bring happiness, and Dhakshinamoorthy, the deceased in this case, is one such person.”