Isha Foundation undertakes not to operate crematorium before obtaining consent

Madras High Court records Isha Foundation's agreement to halt crematorium construction until Tamil Nadu Pollution Control Board approval.

The Madras High Court on Wednesday, May 29, 2024 recorded a submission made on behalf of Isha Foundation that it shall not operate a crematorium, being constructed at Ikkarai Boluvampatti village in Perur Taluk of Coimbatore district, until the issuance of Consent to Operate by the Tamil Nadu Pollution Control Board.

A summer vacation Bench of Justices J. Sathya Narayana Prasad and V. Lakshminarayanan recorded the submission made by senior counsel Satish Parasaran, representing Isha Foundation, and granted him time till June 12 for filing a counter affidavit to a writ petition filed by an adjacent landowner.

S.N. Subramanian, 72, had filed the petition claiming he owns 52 cents of land next to the foundation and had been doing agriculture over there. He added his mother-in-law Subbathal had sold two acres of her land to the foundation in 2013 and died two weeks thereafter due to an elephant attack.

Stating the foundation had constructed a Kalabhairavar temple on the property adjacent to the petitioner’s land, his counsel M. Purushothaman said, construction activities were being carried on to establish an electric crematorium at the same location with a capacity to cremate 14 bodies a day.

Further, claiming there was absolutely no necessity to establish the crematorium since enough number of them were in existence in the taluk, the counsel said, the foundation was attempting to create an impression as if the crematorium was being established only at the request of the villagers.

He feared the petitioner and his family would be put to great hardship if the crematorium was allowed to be constructed close to his property and sought a direction to the Coimbatore Collector to conduct an inquiry as how the Ikkarai Boluvampatti panchayat president had granted approval for the construction.