A Hindu man who wants the right to be cremated on a traditional funeral pyre after he dies has taken his case to Britain's Court of Appeal. Lawyer Rambert de Mello said Monday that his 71-year old client, Davender Ghai, wanted to be cremated on a wood pyre that is open to the sky. Ghai said in a statement that he wanted his "soul to arise from the flames like the mythical phoenix, not be incinerated in an industrial furnace.'

A High Court judge ruled last year that such pyres are forbidden by UK law, which states that all cremations must take place within a building with a wall and a roof. Judges at the Court of Appeal said they would rule later.

Copyright Associated Press, 2010