Judge withdraws from 20- day-old baby cremation case

March 29, 2021 at 3:29 PM

A member of the five-judge bench at the Supreme Court has withdrawn from hearing the case over the cremation of a 20-day-old infant who was infected with the coronavirus.

Supreme Court Judge Yasantha Kodagoda withdrew from the case, which had been registered after the parents of the child had filed a Fundamental Rights (FR) petition claiming that the child was forcibly cremated last December.

The 20-day-old infant had died while being treated at the Lady Ridgeway Hospital in Colombo and had later been cremated.

The petition filed by the infant’s parents was set to be taken up for hearing before justices Priyantha Jayawardena, L. T. B. Dehideniya, Gamini Amarasekara, Yasantha Kodagoda, and Kumuduni Wickramasinghe today.

However, Judge Yasantha Kodagoda withdrew from the case citing personal reasons, following which the case was postponed to the 25th of May, 2021. (NewsWire)