SC Declines Plea To Exhume, Transport Mortal Remains Of Pakistani Sufi Saint To India

The Supreme Court on Friday rejected a petition seeking the transportation to India of the mortal remains of Sufi saint Hazrat Shah Muhammad Abdul Muqtadir Shah Masood Ahmad, a Pakistani citizen, who died in Dhaka, Bangladesh, in 2022.

A bench of Chief Justice of India DY Chandrachud and Justices JB Pardiwala and Manoj Misra said no one can claim a right to bring back mortal remains of a foreigner to India.

The bench asked, "He is a Pakistani citizen, how can you expect the Union of India to bring his burials in India?"

The counsel, appearing for petitioner Dargah Hazrat Mulla Syed, said the saint has no family in Pakistan, whereas, at the dargah in Uttar Pradesh's Prayagraj, he was the Sajjada-nasheen (spiritual head).

Seeking direction from the Union of India to bring the mortal remains of the saint to India, the counsel for the saint said he was born in Prayagraj and migrated to Pakistan and later he got Pakistani citizenship in 1992, the top court was informed.

To this end, the bench said that if he were an Indian citizen, it could have asked the government to make efforts to bring back his mortal remains.

"For a foreign citizen, no one can seek exhumation of mortal remains from another country for bringing to India," said the bench.

"He was elected as the Sajjada Nasheen of the shrine, viz. Dargah Hazrat Mulla Syed Mohammad Shah, in 2008 in Prayagraj. He executed his will in 2021, expressing a desire to be buried in the shrine. He died in Dhaka, where he was buried. There are difficulties in entertaining such a petition," the bench observed.

Dismissing the plea, the top court said, "Hazrat Shah was a Pakistani citizen and has no constitutional rights. There are practical difficulties related to exhumation. As a matter of first principle, it would not be right for this court to direct the transportation of the mortal remains of a citizen of a foreign state in India."

(ANI)