The high court on Monday turned down the state health department’s plea, seeking a modification of an earlier division bench order that directed it to hand over bodies of Covid patients to the next of kin.

If a Covid patient’s body is handed over to the next of kin, he/she/they will have the right on it and can take the body to other places before going to the crematorium or burial ground, advocate-general Kishore Datta told the division bench, headed by Chief Justice T.B.N. Radhakrishnan.

Datta had moved the petition on behalf of the principal secretary of the state health department. “The system may create a health hazard for other people. So, the court should modify its order and let the department conduct the last rites. The court can allow the patients’ relatives to see the body in hospital.”

The bench refused to accept the health department’s plea but ordered that the next of kin of a patient would have to take the body straight to the nearest crematorium or burial ground from hospital.

Following a plea by Vineet Ruia, who described himself as a social worker, another division bench had last week issued certain guidelines to conduct the last rites of people dying of Covid. The state government must hand over bodies of Covid patients to the next of kin, the bench had said.

The state government had moved Calcutta High court against the order.

Asked if the state government would move the Supreme Court against the order, a state law department officer said: “It will be decided in a day or two. But according to the health department, there is every possibility of further spread of the disease if bodies are handed over to the next of kin of patients.”

The government has so far not handed over bodies of Covid patients to the next of kin. Its officials or agencies have conducted funerals and last rites.

Families are given a 30-minute window to see a body in hospital before the body is taken to a crematorium or burial ground.