Graves on the rise, but no land to live: HC

The way graveyards are expanding in the national capital, there would be no place to live, the Delhi High Court observed on Tuesday.

Asking the authorities to find out about the burial practices prevailing elsewhere in the world, a bench of Acting Chief Justice Gita Mittal and Justice C Hari Shankar said as the population was rising, the death rate was also growing, but the land remained the same.

"The way you are expanding graves, there will be no place to live. There is no place for people to live. There is space only for graves. Where will you bury people who die now? Find out what is the practice in the world," the bench said.

The observations came as the bench heard pleas related to unauthorised construction inside the Amir Khusro Park near Sundar Nagar in South Delhi.

When the counsel for Waqf Board said the population of Muslims has grown by 1.2 per cent in last 10 years, the bench shot back "has the land grown in that proportion? It remains the same."

During the hearing, the bench also asked the Waqf Board counsel to go and inspect the structures at the park and inform it which of these were pre-existing and which ones were new.

"We will protect only the old structures. New structures are not liable to be protected," the bench added.