A Bench of the Punjab and Haryana High Court on Monday allowed the petitions filed by four women disciples of the Divya Jyoti Jagriti Sansthan and adjourned till March 19 the matter of cremation of its head, Ashutosh Maharaj, whose body has been lying in a freezer at the sect headquarters in Nurmahal in Jalandhar.
The women disciples of the sect had claimed before the Bench of acting Chief Justice Shiavax Jal Vazifdar and Justice Augustine George Masih that Ashutosh Maharaj was in a samadhi and was not dead. Earlier in December, the Bench had stayed the order of a single judge which had directed that the body be cremated.
In his December 1 order, Justice M.M.S. Bedi had directed the Punjab Government to cremate the mortal remains of the sect head who had been declared ‘clinically dead’ by doctors on January 29, 2014. The body had been kept in a freezer at an ashram of the Sansthan in Nurmahal, Jalandhar ever since. The court had also directed the constitution of a committee under a District Magistrate to look into the matter.
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