Scottish Human Rights Law Group

Andrew Norfolk
Times, February 11, 2010, 18
The Court of Appeal (CA) has ruled that Hindus and Sikhs in Britain can cremate their dead on funeral pyres. The landmark ruling follows a case brought by Davender Kumar Ghai, a 71-year-old Hindu, who wanted the right to be cremated by “sacred fire”, according to the ancient diktats of his religion. Mr Ghai’s request …

by Gordon Junor, Advocate

INTRODUCTION
In their well-publicised decision (reversing the approach of the Court of Appeal) in Gentle the House of Lords, although with sympathetic comment, rejected the claim of the mother of a soldier killed by “friendly fire” seeking an independent inquiry as to whether reasonable steps had been taken to determine whether the invasion of Iraq was lawful under …

 
It was argued on behalf of a public gas transporter charged with causing the deaths of four individuals following an explosion at a dwelling house that there were insufficient procedural safeguards to ensure that they would receive a fair trial at the hands of a jury on the basis that no reasons would be provided for the jury’s verdict, and …

 
The accused were public works contractors, being prosecuted under the Health and Safety at Work etc Act 1974 for alleged contamination of a public water supply in Edinburgh and environs following a spill of diesel oil from machinery being operated by the accused while carrying out road resurfacing works. The result  was that the water supply to parts of Edinburgh …

 
The appeal court rejected the contention that for the purposes of the reasonable time requirement in a health and safety prosecution, the time started running from either the date of the incident complained of or from the date on which the company was informed by the Health and Safety Executive that a report had been sent to the procurator fiscal.