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Monday, December 5, 2005

Moghal descendant claims rights over the tombs of Emperor Shahjahan and Queen Mumtaj Mahal in Taj Mahal

By Syed Akbar
Hyderabad: Yakub Habeebuddin Tucy, a city-based descendent of last  Moghal Emperor Bahadur Shah Zafar has knocked at the doors of  Supreme Court seeking temporary injunction order permitting him to preside  over the Urs celebrations of Shahjahan and Mumtaj Mahal at their tombs in  the Taj.
The Urs falls on January 25 and 26 next year and Habeebuddin Tucy claims  that only the family members of the Moghal emperors have the right to  preside over the religious ceremony. So far, the Archaeological Survey of  India has been celebrating the Urs.
Habeebuddin shot into national limelight a few months ago when he filed a  case in Allahabad High Court seeking direction to the Central government  that the Taj Mahal belonged to him by virtue of his lineage to the Moghal  emperors.
"The ASI has the jurisdiction over only the protection part of the Taj Mahal. It has no right to interfere in religious ceremonies. As legal descendants of  the Moghal emperors, only we have the right to supervise over the religious  ceremonies," Habeebuddin observed.
Habeebuddin's advocate M Irshad Hanif told this correspondent from Delhi  on telephone that the Supreme Court had registered their petition. It may  come up for hearing next week. "Our contention is that there should be a Taj  Act on the lines of the Rajghat Samadhi Act 1951, Dargah Khwaja Sahib Act 1955 and Rampur Raza Library Act 1975. In all these Acts, the descendants  have been given permission to supervise over the religious ceremonies  though the protection and maintenance part vests with ASI, Central  government and Wakf Board," he said.
Hanif said they had prayed for declaration of the Taj Mahal as a Wakf  property and permission to Yakub Tucy to be the incharge of the Urs. "We  are not asking for the mutavalliship. We are just seeking supervision over the  religious functions," he clarified.

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