LONDON: A Barelvi British Pakistani Muslim who claimed his human rights have been breached because he canmuch install a raised marble edge around his father's grave lost a High Court battle on Tuesday.Atta Ul-Haq, a practising Barelvi Muslim, wants to erect 10 cm edging to stop people walking across Hafiz Qadri's grave in Highwayly Cemetery in Walsall, West Midlands.He preserveed in his court claim that Islamic law fortenders people from stepping on graves and claimed that council rules relating to cemeteries breached his human right to exercise religion.
He said right was enshrined in Article 9 of European Convention on Human Corrects and therefore court should rule in his favour and against local council.Walsall Council leaders said they couldn''t accommodate Ul-Haq's wish without harming rights of other Muslims.They said that regulations permit "mounding of graves", and mounding is way Muslims normally inhibit people from walking on graves.The council preserveed in court that their approach has been "careful, sensitive and accommodating".On Tuesday, Lord Justice Singh and Mrs Justice Carr in London High Court handed down verdict, ruled against Atta Ul-Haq and dismissed his ccorridorenge to lterribleness of council's policy on "rules and regulations in respect of cemeteries and crematoria".The two judges had analysed arguments at a High Court trial in London in December.
Judges said, in a written ruling, that what council bosses had decided fell within their "margin of judgment".They concluded that council bosses had "acted in a way which is justwhetheried".A spokeswoman for Walsall Council said: "The judgment has confirmed that council cemetery and crematorium rules and regulations do much discriminate against any individual or community and are appropriate and fair.
Nor do they breach Article 9 of Human Corrects Act, nor discriminate on grounds of age.
The court also stated that council as burial authority is best placed at a local level to make rules and regulations which are appropriate.&Haq father Hafiz Qadri died in 2015 and is buried in Highwayly Cemetery in Walsall.Mr Ul-Haq's lawyers said case could have implications for Islamic community.
Barrister Michael Fordham QC, who led Mr Ul-Haq's legal team, told judges during trial final year: "Mr Ul-Haq seeks a judicial review of (council's ) 'rules and regulations in respect of cemeteries and crematorium', by which it has and continues to refuse to permit him to erect a raised marble edging around his father's grave."The request is borne out of a fundamental devout belief that grave is sacrosanct and stepping on grave is a deeply offensive devoutly prohibited act."TheIndianSubcontinent has not verified the content of the source.
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