Bill on honourable disposal of body tabled in Haryana House

Bhartesh Singh Thakur

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Chandigarh, February 22

The Haryana Honourable Disposal of Dead Body Bill, 2024, introduced in the Vidhan Sabha today, gives power to an Executive Magistrate to order the cremation of a body by an urban local body or gram panchayat in case the family refuses to conduct the same, and the order cannot be challenged in the court.

Police can take possession of body

• No appeal provision to Executive Magistrate’s order on cremation
• Police officer can take possession of body if has “reason to believe” that it may be used for remonstration by kin
• Bill provides for imprisonment, which shall not be less than six months, but which may be extended to five years, and shall also be a liable to a fine up to Rs 1 lakh

The Bill doesn’t have any appeal provision to the Executive Magistrate’s order. The officer incharge of the police station has the power to take possession of the body if he or she has reason to believe from “personal knowledge or otherwise, to be recorded in writing, that any dead body is likely to be used by any family member or a group of persons or is being so used, for remonstration”.

After taking possession of the body, the station incharge has to inform the DSP and Executive Magistrate concerned and send the body for a postmortem examination.

The Executive Magistrate then shall give notice to the deceased’s family to take custody of the body and perform the last rites. After information from the police and a response received from the family, if the Executive Magistrate is satisfied that the kin is not willing to perform the last rites, he shall issue an order to the family to perform the last rites within a specified time, which shall not be later than 12 hours, and also to remove the unlawful obstruction, if any, from a public place with immediate effect.

If the family member does not perform the last rites within the specified period, the Executive Magistrate “shall direct any officer of the Urban Local Body or Gram Panchayat concerned or any other officer, as he deems fit, to perform the last rites within the next twelve hours”. Section 7 (3) of the Bill says that the “order made by the Executive Magistrate” shall “not be called into question in any court of law”.

For using the body for remonstration, the Bill provides for imprisonment, which shall not be less than six months, but which may be extended to five years, and shall also be a liable to a fine up to Rs 1 lakh.

“The Bill gives unflinching powers to the Executive Magistrate and police state incharge. We will raise the issue during discussion on the Bill,” said Congress chief whip BB Batra.

The Bill provides for the collection of genetic data information from the body through DNA or RNA profiling, which will be kept confidential. For disclosure of genetic data information, there is a prescription of punishment for a term which shall not be less than three years, but may extend to 10 years with a fine up to Rs 1 lakh.

Bill to ban hookah bars

The government introduced the Cigarettes and Other Tobacco Products (Prohibition of Advertisement and Regulation of Trade and Commerce, Production, Supply and Distribution) Haryana Amendment Act, 2024, to ban hookah bars. The Bill prescribes punishment imprisonment for a term, which shall not be less than a year, but which may extend to three years with a fine which shall not be less than Rs 1 lakh, which may extend to Rs 5 lakh.

Bill introduced for Gita Jayanti Mela Authority

The state government today introduced the Haryana Antrarashtriya Gita Jayanti Mela Authority Bill, 2024 for the establishment and constitution of a statutory authority for the management, regulation and organising the International Gita Mahotsav.