Jagdish Saraf and Madhu Saraf were criticised by South Australia’s coroner Mark Johns over the death of the 71-year-old Gladys Ruth Wells.

Wells was found dead in her bed at the couple’s Brighton Aged Care Nursing Home in Adelaide in July last year and Johns said it should have been reported to him before her body was cremated.

Federal Ageing Minister Justine Elliott said the government had taken action to prevent the Sarafs, trading as Bresant Pty Ltd, from operating aged care homes.

The company’s history of significant and repeated non-compliance with their obligations was the basis for the decision, she was quoted as saying by the AAP.

The cause of Wells’ death was given as cardiac arrest, but Johns said he was concerned over evidence that her body had been found in an unusual position.

The couple signed the woman’s death and cremation certificates, which Johns said in his findings, delivered in February this year, was “inappropriate”, the AAP reported.

The doctors have since instigated Supreme Court action, arguing Wells’ death was not reportable to the coroner and that Johns was prevented to make any suggestion or finding of criminal or civil liability under law as a coroner.

Elliott said the government was concerned about an obvious conflict of interest regarding doctors who owned and operated nursing homes being able to sign death and cremation certificates.