A Hindu grandfather has won the right to be cremated on a traditional open-air funeral pyre in Britain.

Davender Ghai, 71, believes such a cremation is essential to the liberation of his soul after death.

His local authority and the Ministry of Justice said the ancient practice of ‘natural cremation’ breached the 1902 Cremation Act, but the Court of Appeal ruled Mr Ghai’s request could be accommodated under existing laws.

Yesterday’s landmark ruling means thousands of Hindus, Sikhs and anyone else wanting ‘natural cremation’ can have their dying wishes legally carried out.

It opens the way for building crematoria with a hole in the roof to meet the requirements of the faiths.

Mr Ghai, a father of three from Gosforth, Newcastle upon Tyne, said he was ‘overjoyed’ by the decision, adding: ‘I never doubted justice would be done but I often feared that my health would fail me before the legal journey had ended. This case was truly a matter of life and death for me and the verdict has breathed new life into an old man’s dreams.’

Mr Ghai, a British citizen who came to England from Kenya in 1958 to study, added: ‘Both my father and grandfather proudly served in the British Army in Kenya and I myself have devoted the best years of my life in voluntary service to Britain’s poor, desperate and lonely.

‘I never wanted to be divisive or offend anyone – the Britain I have loved for over half a century is a tolerant live-and-let-live nation and this is a victory for those values.’

Mr Ghai’s attempt to establish the first approved site in the UK for the 3,000-year-old spiritual ceremony was blocked four years ago by Newcastle City Council, which said the pyres were unlawful.

The local authority’s decision was upheld at the High Court last year, when the Ministry of Justice argued that ‘a large proportion of the population would be upset and offended and would find it abhorrent if human remains were burned on open-air pyres’.

The pensioner said the council’s cremation facilities were a ‘ waste disposal process devoid of spiritual significance’.

He appealed and yesterday won his four-year battle. Master of the Rolls, Lord Neuberger, said: ‘Mr Ghai’s religious and personal beliefs as to how his remains should be cremated once he dies can be accommodated within current legislation.’

The ruling came down not to human rights but to the question of what constitutes a building.

Hindu wins battle for funeral pyre according to Hindu cremation rituals.

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