TOP COURT SAYS IT CANNOT ASK UK TO RETURN KOHINOOR

The Supreme Cour declined on Friday to pass an order to reclaim the Kohinoor from the United Kingdom or to stop it from being auctioned.

A bench headed by Chief Jus tice JS Khehar disposed of the petition seeking the direction while noting that the Centre had already taken measures in this regard. The court also said it can not ask a foreign government no to auction a property.

“We are quite surprised that such petitions are filed for prop erties which are in the USA and the UK. What kind of a writ peti tion is this?” the bench told the lawyer who was representing the NGO, All India Human Rights and Social Justice Front which moved the petition.

“The Government of India continues to explore ways and means with the UK government on the issue,” the court said referring to the Centre’s affida vit that was filed in the year-old petition. The Centre placed its official stand before the cour after a bench, then headed by CJI (retired) TS Thakur, asked for its response to the petition.

“India won independence in 1947. But successive govern ments at the Centre have made little or no attempt to bring back the Kohinoor diamond from the UK to India, the place of its ori gin,” the petition read.

It said the government had maintained that Kohinoor was an Indian artefact. But repatria tion cannot be made because the same was not covered under the UNESCO Convention. The peti tioner condemned the succes sive government’s “lackadaisi cal approach” in making positive and meaningful diplomatic par leys that were not in nationa interest. “All attempts on the part of the petitioners and other right-thinking persons to acti vate the Central government have failed,” the plea had said.

The Centre said that the demand to get back Kohinoor has been raised time and again in Parliament.