Section 48.1 - Transfer of bodies and vacation of grounds; petition of officialsThe courts of quarter sessions of the several counties of this Commonwealth, upon petition of the proper officials in whom is vested the management of the affairs of any incorporated or unincorporated church, cemetery or burial association, setting forth any one or more of the following reasons:
(1) That due to the opening of streets, roads or public passages around or through the same a portion of the property has become angular and partly surrounded by improvements; or(2) That due to the proximity of adjacent property, the interment of the dead may, in the interest of public health, be prohibited in the ground belonging to any such church, cemetery or burial association aforesaid; or(3) That from other causes, any burial ground belonging to or in charge of any such incorporated or unincorporated church, cemetery or burial association, has ceased to be used for interments and has become so neglected as to become a public nuisance; or(4) That the remains of such bodies interred in any such neglected or disused cemetery in any city, township or borough interfere with and hinder the improvements, extension and general progressive interest of the Commonwealth or any city, borough, town to township; and after three weeks of advertisement of hearing in open court, for the purpose, are hereby vested and empowered with full power and authority, after full hearing of the parties therein, proofs and allegations, for any one or more of the above reasons, to authorize and direct the removal of the remains of all of the dead from the whole or any part of such cemetery or burial ground to another portion of the said cemetery or burial ground or to such other suitable ground as said officials may have procured in the vicinity for the reinterment of the bodies, or to such lots or sections in a properly regulated burial ground in the vicinity, and to order and decree that the ground from which the bodies have been removed shall be forever vacated for burial purposes.1913, June 25 P.L. 551, § 2.1, added 1959, Aug. 11 P.L. 676, § 2.