The Serbian ambassador petitioned at the direction of the Serbian government for the exhumation of the remains of Queen Maria of Yugoslavia for their re-interment in a royal mausoleum in St George's Church, Oplenac, in Serbia. Queen Maria had died in England and her remains had been interred in the Royal Burial Ground at Frogmore since 1961. The chancellor noted that, pursuant to section 25 of the Burial Act 1857, a licence was necessary and had been granted by the Secretary of State, as the intention was to re-inter the remains in a location that was not consecrated for the purposes of the Burial Act. The chancellor stated that a faculty for exhumation in such circumstances should not be granted unless the court was satisfied that the remains would continue to be treated with reverence and dignity and would be preserved in a place of real permanence. Such conditions were clearly satisfied here. In granting the faculty, the chancellor further found that special reasons existed for the departure from the norm of permanence in Christian burial, including the establishment of a family grave and the principle of the comity of nations. [RA]
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