Hindu loses pyre cremation battle
A devout Hindu has lost his High Court battle for the legal right to be cremated on a traditional open-air funeral pyre.
Spiritual healer Davender Ghai, 70, told a judge at a recent hearing that a pyre was essential to "a good death" and the release of his spirit into the afterlife.
Mr Ghai, from Gosforth, Newcastle upon Tyne, was challenging a refusal by Newcastle City Council to permit him to be cremated according to his Hindu beliefs.
Mr Justice Cranston, sitting in London, dismissed the challenge, saying pyres were prohibited by law, and the prohibition was "justified".
