§ 5212. Permit to remove dead bodies

(a) A person desirous of disinterring or removing the body of a human being from one cemetery to another cemetery or to another part of the same cemetery or from a tomb or receiving vault elsewhere shall apply to the clerk of the municipality in which the dead body is interred or entombed for a removal permit.

(b) An applicant for a removal permit shall publish notice of his or her intent to remove the remains. This notice shall be published for two successive weeks in a newspaper of general circulation in the municipality in which the body is interred or entombed. The notice shall include a statement that the spouse, child, parent, sibling, or descendant of the deceased, or that the cemetery commissioner or other municipal authority responsible for cemeteries in the municipality may object to the proposed removal by filing a complaint in the Probate Division of the Superior Court of the district in which the body is located as provided in section 5212a of this title.

(c) The municipal clerk shall issue a removal permit 45 days after the date on which notice was last published pursuant to subsection (b) of this section or, if an objection is made pursuant to section 5212a, of this title upon order of the court.

(d) Notwithstanding the provisions of subsections (b) and (c) of this section, a removal permit shall be issued upon application:

(1) when removal is necessary because of temporary entombment; or

(2) to a federal, state, county, or municipal official acting pursuant to official duties; or

(3) if the applicant has written permission to remove the remains from all persons entitled to object under section 5212a of this title.

(e) This section does not apply to:

(1) Unmarked burial sites that are subject to the provisions of subchapter 1 of this chapter.

(2) The removal of "historic remains," which has the same meaning as in subdivision 5217(a)(1) of this title. (Amended 1985, No. 206 (Adj. Sess.), § 1, eff. June 2, 1986; 2009, No. 151 (Adj. Sess.), § 3; 2009, No. 154 (Adj. Sess.), § 238a, eff. Feb. 1, 2011.)