There was easier way to get plot

If taking over the cemetery land was matter of life and death, the officers involved could have used an easier route.

They could have asked the government to exercise its right of land ownership to acquire the land.

Section 75 of the Constitution, empowers the government to take over any land where it has a particular interest by buying off the owner.
Public health

However to protect the land owners from arbitrarily eviction by corrupt officials, the Constitution provides that the government must prove that the land is being acquired “in the interests of defence, ublic safety, public order, public morality, public health, town and country planning or the developmentof property so as to promote the public benefit.”

The City Council could have justified the acquisition of the land under the last four conditions.

In exchange the landowner would have been paid since the law provides for “payment of full compensation” which is generally taken to be equivalent to the market price of the land to be acquired.