CEMETERIES AND BURIAL GROUNDS

1 This Ordinance may be cited as the Cemeteries and Burials Ordinance.*(* Primary Court has exclusive jurisdiction in respect of all offences under this Ordinance under Section 33 of the Judicature Act read with Gazette Extraordinary No. 43/4 of 1979-07-02. )

2. Every Proclamation, regulation, notice, by-law, and public order, made or purporting to be made under any enactment repealed by Ordinance No. 9 of 1899 and of force at the time of this Ordinance coming into operation, shall continue and be as if this Ordinance had not been passed, but so that the same shall be as valid and may be revoked, altered, or otherwise dealt with under this Ordinance as if it had been made under this Ordinance, and any contravention or breach thereof of which, after the coming into operation of this Ordinance, any person is guilty, may be punished in like manner as if it were a contravention, or breach of a regulation, by-law, or public order made under this Ordinance.

3. In this Ordinance, unless the context otherwise requires-

” administrative region” means an administrative region defined by Order made under section 2 of the Local Government (Administrative Regions) Ordinance;

“burial ground” means any land or ground (other than a general cemetery) used for the burial or cremation of the dead at the time of the coming into operation of this Ordinance, or subsequently approved by the Minister in manner provided in Chapter III for the purposes of burying or cremating the dead;

” cemetery ” means any general cemetery established under the provisions of Ordinance No. 12 of 1862 +or of this Ordinance; (+ Repealed by Ordinance No, 9 of I899.)

” proper authority ” means in the case of an area situated within a Municipality, or an Urban Council established under the Urban Councils Ordinance, or a Town Council, such Municipality, Urban Council, or Town Council, and in the case of every other town, village, or place, the Assistant Commissioner of Local Government for the administrative region within which such town, village, or place is situated.

4. All Proclamations, regulations, notices, by-laws, and public orders made and issued under this Ordinance shall be published in the Gazette.

5.

6. It shall be the duty of the Municipal Council of a Municipal town, and of the Urban Council or Town Council of a town for which an Urban Council or Town Council is constituted, on the request of the Minister, to provide land for the purpose of the establishment of a general cemetery for the burial or cremation of persons dying within the limits of such town, or for the addition to the area of any cemetery heretofore or to be hereafter established.

7. No land which shall have been consecrated or exclusively set apart for the burial of the dead, and in which burials shall have been discontinued under the provisions of Ordinance No. 12 of 1862* or of this Ordinance, shall be sold, disposed of, or made any use of for any purpose whatsoever without the permission of the Minister; and every sale and disposal of such land without the permission aforesaid shall be null and void ; and any person making any use of such land without the permission of the Minister shall he guilty of an offence, and be liable on conviction to a fine not exceeding one thousand rupees.

8. No part of any cemetery shall be constructed nearer to any dwelling house than fifty feet, except with the consent in writing of the owner, lessee, and occupier of such dwelling house.

9. The proper authority may authorize the erection of chapels and other buildings for the performance of burial services or cremation within the limits of a cemetery.

10. Every cemetery and every portion of a cemetery set apart as a ground for cremation shall be enclosed by the proper authority with substantial walls or iron railings of the height of six feet at least, which shall be kept in complete repair.

11.

12. No part of any cemetery shall be used for any purpose except for the purpose of a cemetery ; and any person making any other use of such land, except for the burial or cremation of the dead and purposes relative to such burial or cremation, shall be guilty of an offence, and liable on conviction to a fine not exceeding two hundred rupees for every such offence.

13. Any clerk in holy orders, minister, priest, or other person may perform the services of his religion, at the request of the executor of the will of any deceased person, or at the request of any other person having the charge of the body of any deceased person.

14. No corpse buried in any part of any cemetery shall be removed from its place of burial without the authority of a District Court having jurisdiction over the limits thereof;

Provided that nothing in this section shall be taken to limit any powers now existing to order a post-mortem examination for the purposes of the criminal law.

15. All burials and cremations shall be registered in register books to be kept for that purpose by the keeper of the cemetery hereinafter mentioned, or where a caretaker has been appointed by a board of management under the provisions of section 11, by the caretaker appointed by such board ; and such register books or certified copies or extracts therefrom shall be received in all courts as prima facie evidence of such burials and cremations, and copies or transcripts thereof shall be, from time to time, sent to such officer as shall be appointed by the Minister for such purpose.

16. The proper authority shall appoint a keeper, grave-diggers, and other servants necessary for the care and use of the cemetery, and may pay them such salary, wages, and allowances as he may think fit, and may remove them or any of them at his pleasure.

17. The proper authority may make regulations-

18. No corpse shall be buried in any vault under any chapel or building of the cemetery, or within five feet of the outer wall of any such chapel or building; and every person who shall bury, or cause or permit or suffer any corpse to be buried contrary to the provisions of this section shall be guilty of an offence, and be liable on conviction to a fine not exceeding three hundred rupees.

19.

20. The grant under section 19 of the exclusive right of burial in any part of a cemetery, and of the right of one or more burials therein, or of placing therein any monument, tablet, or gravestone, shall be made in either one of the forms A or B in the Schedule, or to the like effect, and shall be executed by the cemetery keeper in the presence of two witnesses.

21.

22.

23. The proper authority shall cause a plan of the cemetery to be made upon a scale sufficiently large to show the situation of every burial place in all parts of the cemetery so set apart and in which an exclusive right of burial has been granted; and all such burial places shall be numbered, and such numbers shall be entered in a book to be kept by the cemetery keeper for that purpose, and such book shall contain the names and descriptions of the several persons to whom the exclusive right of burial in any such place of burial has been granted ; and no place of burial with exclusive right of burial therein shall be made in the cemetery without the same being marked out in such plan and a corresponding entry made in the said book ; and the said plan and book shall be kept by the cemetery keeper and shall be open to public inspection at all reasonable hours on payment of such fee as the proper authority shall appoint.

24. Every assignment of an exclusive right of burial may be in the form C in the Schedule or to the like effect, and shall be valid if executed before one or more witnesses; and every such assignment shall within six months after the execution thereof if executed in Sri Lanka or within six months after the arrival thereof in Sri Lanka if executed elsewhere, be produced to the keeper of the cemetery, or in the case of a portion of a cemetery which has been heretofore set apart under section 12 of Ordinance No. 12 of 1862,* or shall hereafter be sold for the special use of any religious denomination under section 11, to Assignment to the board of management of such be registered, denomination; and a memorial of such assignment shall be made in the register by the cemetery keeper or board, as the case may be, in the same manner as that of the original grant; and until such memorial no right of burial shall be acquired under any such assignment; and for every such memorial the cemetery keeper or board shall be entitled to demand such sum as the proper authority shall think fit, not exceeding one rupee.(* Repealed by Ordinance No. 9 of 1899.)

25. No corpse shall be buried in any of burial not to place wherein the exclusive right of burial shall have been granted, except with the consent of the owner for the time being of such exclusive right of burial.

26. The board of management in respect of any portion of a cemetery sold under section 11, and the proper authority in respect of the remaining portion of such cemetery, may cause to be taken down and removed any gravestone, monument, tablet, or monumental inscription which shall have been erected without its or his authority respectively.

27. Whenever the proper authority shall refuse to authorize the erection of a chapel or other building for the performance of burial services or cremation within the limits 1 of any general cemetery or to sell a portion thereof for the special use of any religious denomination applying for the same, or for the purpose of exclusive right of burial therein, or shall demand for the sale of any such portion a sum of money which appears to such denomination to be excessive, it shall be lawful for the Minister, on application by such denomination, if it should seem expedient, to exercise in respect of such cemetery all or any of the powers conferred on the proper authority by the provisions of sections 9, 11 and 19, or any of them.

28. Every person who shall wilfully destroy or injure any building, wall, or fence belonging to any cemetery, or destroy or injure any tree or plant therein, or who shall daub or disfigure any wall thereof, or put up any bill thereon or on any wall thereof, or wilfully destroy, injure, or deface any monument, tablet, inscription, or gravestone within any cemetery, or do any other wilful damage therein, shall be guilty of an offence and be liable on conviction to a fine not exceeding one hundred rupees,

29. Every person who shall play at any game or sport or discharge firearms, save at a military funeral, in any cemetery, or who shall wilfully or unlawfully disturb any persons assembled in any cemetery for the purpose of burying or cremating any corpse therein, or who shall commit any nuisance within any cemetery, shall be guilty of an offence and be liable on conviction to a fine not exceeding one hundred rupees.

30. Any person committing any breach of any regulations made in virtue of this Ordinance shall be guilty of an offence and be liable on conviction to a fine not exceeding one hundred rupees.

31.In this Chapter the term “place of public worship ” shall include all cathedrals, churches, temples of every description, mosques of every description, and chapels other than chapels erected in a cemetery or burial ground and used exclusively for the purpose of reading burial services therein.

32. The Minister may, from time to time, order that after a time to be mentioned in such order it shall not be lawful to bury or cremate any corpse or coffin in any place of public worship or within a specified area about the same; and every person who shall, after the time mentioned in such order, bury or cremate, or cause, permit, or suffer any corpse or coffin to be buried or cremated contrary to the provisions of this section, shall be guilty of an offence, and liable on conviction to a fine not exceeding three hundred rupees.

33. No new burial ground shall be provided and used in any town, district, or place without the previous approval of the Minister, on the recommendation of the proper authority, and such approval shall be signified by notice in the Gazette. Every application for a new burial ground shall be accompanied by a plan prepared by a surveyor licensed under the Surveyors Ordinance, and showing clearly the position of such burial ground.

34. In case it appears to the Minister, upon the representation of the proper authority, that any burial ground situated in any town, district, or place is in such a state or locality as to be dangerous to the health of the inhabitants of such town, district, or place, it shall be lawful for the Minister, to order that, after a time to be mentioned in the order, burials or cremations in any such burial ground shall be discontinued ; and every such order shall be published in the Gazette.

35. After the time mentioned in any such order it shall not be lawful to bury or cremate any corpse in any burial ground mentioned in such order: and every person who after such time as aforesaid shall bury or cremate, cause, permit, or suffer to be buried or cremated, or assist in burying or cremating any corpse contrary to this section, shall be guilty of an offence, and be liable on conviction thereof to a fine not exceeding three hundred rupees.

36. It shall be lawful for the proper authority to call upon the trustees, managers, or proprietors of any burial ground, or upon the person having sole or principal charge thereof, to enclose or to clear the same of jungle or underwood, within a reasonable time to be determined by the proper authority ; and in case of non-compliance with such requisition it shall be lawful for the proper authority to cause any such burial ground to be properly enclosed or cleared of jungle or underwood at the expense of such trustees, managers, proprietors, or person having sole or principal charge thereof as aforesaid.

37.No corpse buried in any part of any burial ground shall be removed from its place of burial without the authority of the District Court within the jurisdiction of which such burial ground is situated :

Provided that nothing in this section shall affect or limit the provisions of section 373 of the Code of Criminal Procedure Act.

38. It shall be lawful for the proper authority, from time to time, to make by laws for the following purposes:-

39. Such by-laws shall not be of any force or effect unless and until they shall be submitted to and confirmed by the Minister, who is hereby empowered to alter, amend, or disallow the same, or any repeal, alteration or amendment thereof as he may think proper; and all such by-laws and any repeal, alteration, or amendment thereof shall be published in the Gazette :

Provided, however, that all such by-laws shall be laid before Parliament if Parliament is in session within one month of such publication, and if not in session within one month of the commencement of the session next ensuing, and in either case they shall lie on the table during four sittings of Parliament, and any by-law which has been disapproved by a resolution of Parliament shall cease to have any force or effect.

40. From and after the expiration of three months from the date of the publication in the Gazette of by-laws providing for the registration of burial grounds within specified areas, it shall not be lawful to bury or cremate any corpse in any place within such specified areas other than a general cemetery established under the provisions of this Ordinance or of the Ordinance No. 12 of 1862,* or a burial ground registered in the manner prescribed by such by-laws; and every person who shall after the expiry of three months as aforesaid, contrary to the provisions of this section, bury or cremate, or cause, permit, or suffer to be buried or cremated, or assist in burying or cremating a corpse, shall be guilty of an offence, and liable on conviction thereof to a fine not exceeding three hundred rupees:

Provided that it shall be lawful for the proper authority, or, where the proper authority is a Municipality, Urban Council, or Town Council, for the Mayor or Chairman of such proper authority, at any time to grant permission to bury or cremate any corpse in any place other than a general cemetery established under the provisions of this Ordinance or of the Ordinance No. 12 of 1862,* or a burial ground registered in the manner prescribed by such by-laws, and the provisions of this section shall not apply to any such burial or cremation. (* Repealed by Ordinance No. 9 of 1899. )

41. The breach of any by-law made and published under this Ordinance shall be an offence, and any person convicted of any such breach shall be liable to a fine not exceeding three hundred rupees, and in the case of a continuing offence to a further fine not exceeding one hundred rupees for each day on which the offence is continued.

42. Magistrates’ Courts+ are hereby empowered to deal summarily with all cases instituted under this Ordinance or any by- law made in pursuance thereof, and to impose the full penalties herein prescribed, anything in the Code of Criminal Procedure Act, or any other enactment to the contrary notwithstanding.( + Primary Court has exclusive jurisdiction in respect of all offences under this Ordinance under section 33 of the Judicature Act read with Gazette/: Extraordinary No. 43, 4 of 1979-07-02.)

43. No prosecution shall be instituted against any person for an offence against the provisions of this Ordinance unless the same shall be commenced within three months from the commission of the offence.

44. It shall be lawful for the court before which any conviction under this Ordinance shall take place to award to the person who may have given information of the offence such share of any fine actually recovered, not exceeding the half of the sum recovered, as the court may deem fit.

45. Subject to the provisions in section 44 contained, all fines recovered in respect of any offence under this Ordinance or for the breach of any by-law made in pursuance thereof shall, if the fine was for an offence committed in an area situated within a Municipality, or an Urban Council, or Town Council, be paid to such Municipality, Urban Council or Town Council, as the case may be, and in all other cases to the Consolidated Fund.