Spiritual healer Davender Ghai, 71, was granted his last wish by the Court of Appeal which ruled the controversial ceremony could be carried out without a change in the law.
But the judges ruled in his favour only after Ghai agreed that the pyre would be surrounded by walls and a roof with an opening, the Press Association domestic news agency reported.
Ghai believes that a pyre is essential to “a good death” and for the release of his spirit into the afterlife.
He wants a permit for an open-air cremation site in a remote part of Northumberland in northern England.
Ghai was originally refused permission by the local authority in Newcastle and lost a legal challenge to that decision at the High Court last May.
British law prohibits the burning of human remains anywhere outside a crematorium and Newcastle council had further blocked his wish on the grounds that it was impractical.
Jonathan Swift, representing the Ministry of Justice which opposed Ghai, said the law stipulated that cremations must be within a building which in this case meant a structure bounded by walls with a roof.
He said what Ghai was proposing did not comply with the law which was there to protect “decorum and decency”.
