R (Ghai) v Newcastle-upon-Tyne City Council (2010)
In this case the claimant had wanted the council to allow open-air funeral pyres in order to satisfy his religious beliefs. This had been refused by the council. The Court of Appeal had to consider the meaning of a ‘building’ under the Cremation Act 1902. The Court stated that the word should be given its natural and relatively wide meaning. In other sections of the Act it stated that the ‘building’ had to be substantial and relatively permanent. The Master of the Rolls stated that if the legislature had intended to prohibit the public’s view of the pyre it would have said so somewhere in the Act. Given the claimant’s evidence that such funerals in India were carried out within structures that allowed viewing by the public and the ability of the sun to shine directly on the body the Court decided that a generous interpretation should be favoured to accommodate his wishes.
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