The Supreme Court on Friday rejected a plea seeking its intervention to transport the mortal remains of a Sufi saint — a Pakistani citizen who died in Bangladesh — for reburial to India where he was born.
A three-judge bench presided by Chief Justice of India D Y Chandrachud said there was no constitutionally enforceable right to demand that the remains of a foreign citizen be brought to a country of which he or she is not a citizen, for the purpose of reburial.
“There are difficulties which lie in the path of entertaining a petition under Article 32 of this nature. He was admittedly a Pakistani citizen. There is no enforceable constitutional right which the petitioners can claim for the transport of the mortal remains from Dhaka, where he is buried, to India. Apart from the practical difficulties and issues such as exhumation, we are of the view that as a matter of first principle, it would not be either appropriate or lawful for this court to direct that the body of a person who admittedly was a citizen of a foreign state be brought for… ceremonies to India,” the bench, also comprising Justices J B Pardiwala and Manoj Misra, said in its order..
The counsel appearing for the petitioners told the bench that Hazrat Shah Muhammad Abdul Muqtadir Shah Masood Ahmad was born in Prayagraj, but migrated to Pakistan in 1992 and was conferred with Pakistani citizenship. He was elected Sajjada Nasheen of the Dargah Hazrat Mulla Syed Mohammad Shah in Prayagraj in February 2008. He executed a will on March 8, 2021 expressing A desire to be buried at the shrine. He died on January 21, 2022 during a visit to Dhaka and was buried there. The counsel added that the grave of the saint in Dhaka is not tended to.
She contended that if the Pakistan government is not raising any objection and if the government of Bangladesh allows the exhumation, the question is whether the Central government would permit the transportation of the body to India for the purpose of reburial.
The counsel said she had been writing to the government of India for two years but had not received any response and urged the SC to direct the authorities to furnish a reply to the representation.
“But there is no substance in it. How can anybody who is not a citizen of India either his family or followers of the group say that we want him to be buried here? That person is a foreign citizen,” the CJI reiterated adding the court would have still understood it if the deceased was an NRI.
(Courtesy:- The Indian Express, 6 April 2024)
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