MADHAVI Vs. DISTRICT COLLECTOR AND EXECUTIVE DISTRICT MAGISTRATE

JUDGEMENT

(1.) In this Writ Petition, Mr. K. V. Suryanarayana Iyer, learned counsel for the petitioner, seeks the issue of a writ of mandamus, or any other writ, order, or direction, to respondents 1, 2 and 3, directing them to take adequate steps, under law, to prevent the 4th respondent or any other person, from burying any dead body in the properties taken in by Survey Nos. 290/2, 290/18, and 290/3 in the Vayalar Mekku Village.

(2.) Respondents 1, 2 and 3 to this Writ Petition, are the District Collector and Executive Magistrate, Alleppey, the District Superintendent of Police, Alleppey and the Health Inspector and Taluk Health Officer, Shertalai, respectively. The 4th respondent was the Parish Priest of the Church, in question, at the time when the writ petition was filed in this court; and there is no controversy that the Church in question is now represented by the 5th respondent, who is the Vicar of the particular Parish and who has been brought on record as an additional respondent in these proceedings.

(3.) In order to appreciate the stand taken by the various parties in these proceedings, it is necessary to briefly narrate the circumstances, under which the writ petition came to be filed. There is an unfortunate controversy that rages regarding the right that appears to have been claimed by respondents 4 and 5, to establish a cemetery adjacent to the Church in question, which right appears to be very strenuously controverted, not only by the petitioner but by several other persons, as will be clear from the proceedings, to which I will make a reference immediately.