The Madurai Bench of the Madras High Court recently disposed of the suo motu proceedings initiated in 2020 to direct authorities to provide a pathway giving access to the burial ground from the villages where Scheduled Caste people were residing in Melur so as to enable them to take the dead bodies to the burial ground.

In 2020, the court had initiated the suo motu proceedings based on a news report about a group of Scheduled Caste people in Melur in Madurai district who were forced to carry a dead body through an agricultural field as there was no pathway leading to the burial ground.

A Division Bench of Justices S.M. Subramaniam and A.D. Maria Clete disposed of the proceedings after Melur Tahsildar, in a status report, submitted that land for an alternative burial ground had been earmarked and provided. Further facilities would also be provided.

The court directed the Tahsildar to conduct an inspection, identify the encroachments, if any, and remove them, thereby enabling the people to utilise the pathway to reach the burial ground. The court directed the authorities to provide all facilities in the burial ground earmarked for the benefit of the people. The court disposed of the suo motu proceedings.