SC rejects plea for bringing mortal remains of India-born Pak Sufi saint from Bangladesh

New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Friday dismissed a plea seeking a direction to the Centre to bring the mortal remains of an India-born Pakistani Sufi saint, who died in Bangladesh in 2022, for re-burial in Prayagraj to honour his wish.

The plea referred to the will executed by Hazrat Shah Muhammad Abdul Muqtadir Shah Masood Ahmad, a former native of Allahabad, now Prayagraj, who acquired Pakistani citizenship in 1992, that his mortal remains be interred at the Dargah in the Uttar Pradesh city which he presided over.

"He was a Pakistani citizen. How can you expect the Union of India to bring his mortal remains for re-burial in India. There is no such right whose enforcement can be sought," the top court said while rejecting the plea filed by Dargah Hazrat Mulla Syed of Prayagraj.

"We also have to go by the principles of enforcement of constitutional rights," the bench, comprising Chief Justice D Y Chandrachud and justices JB Pardiwala and Manoj Misra said, adding had he been an Indian citizen the plea would have been taken note of.

The counsel, who appeared for the Dargah, said Ahmad had no family in Pakistan and, moreover, the Sufi saint was the ‘Sajjada Nasheen’ of the shrine.

In Sufi tradition, a Sajjada Nasheen is a successor of a Sufi saint who presides over a shrine.

The bench made it clear that there is no constitutionally enforceable right to seek transportation of the Sufi saint's mortal remains as he was a Pakistani citizen.

"He was elected as the Sajjada Nasheen of the shrine at 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.

"Hazrat Shah was a Pakistani citizen and had no constitutional right... the 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 to India," the bench said.