PART IINFECTIOUS DISEASES
14Power of resident magistrate to order dead body to be removed to mortuary or buried forthwith.
1
If a resident magistrate is satisfied, on a certificate ofF1the Director of Public Health, or on a certificate of some other medical practitioner, that the retention of a dead body in any building would endanger the health of persons residing in or resorting to that building or any adjoining or neighbouring building, the magistrate may order that the body be removed to a mortuary, and that arrangements be made to bury it within a time limited by the order, or, if the magistrate considers immediate burial necessary, immediately.
2
An order under subsection (1) shall be served on such relative of the deceased as the resident magistrate may direct, or if it appears that that deceased did not have any relative upon whom the order might be served, on F2the Regional AgencyF4. . . , so however that failure to serve an order shall not constitute a defence to an action for the recovery of expenses under subsection (4).
3
Immediate cremation of a body or its cremation within the time limited for the burial of the body by an order under subsection (1), shall be a sufficient compliance with such an order.
4
F3The Regional Agency shall, where—
a
an order under subsection (1) has been served on a relative of the deceased and that relative has failed to comply with the order, or
b
the order has been served on them,
cause the body to be buried, and any expenses reasonably incurred by them in so doing may be recovered summarily by them as a civil debt due to them from that relative or from the estate of the deceased.