Supreme Court halts exhumation of bodies in Chhattisgarh's Christian tribal villages, questions govt on 'forced reburial'

New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Wednesday sought a reply from the Chhattisgarh government on a plea alleging exhumation and forced reburial of bodies of tribal Christians in villages over there.

A bench of Justices Vikram Nath, Sandeep Mehta and N V Anjaria also restrained any further exhumation, while considering a plea which claimed that tribal Christians in Chhattisgarh were forcibly prevented from burying their deceased family members in the burial places in their villages.

Senior advocate Colin Gonsalves, representing the petitioners, claimed that the body of the mother of one of the petitioners was exhumed from the grave and reburied elsewhere without his knowledge.

The bench issued notice to the Chhattisgarh government.

Gonsalves asked the court to put on hold any further forcible removal of bodies from the graves.

"In the meantime, it is provided that no further exhumation of buried bodies shall be permitted," the court said, fixing the matter for further hearing after four weeks.

The writ petition was filed by Chhattisgarh Association for Justice and Equality and others contended that this was a denial of their fundamental right under Article 21 of the Constitution.