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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