SC agrees to hear another plea on bringing back ‘Kohinoor’

A three-judge Bench comprising Chief Justice TS Thakur and Justices AM Khanwilkar and DY Chandrachud said it would hear the plea alongwith other pending PIL on the issue.

The fresh plea has been filed by ‘Heritage Bengal’, a registered organisation, through its lawyer Danish Zubair Khan.Senior advocate Soumya Chakraborty, appearing for the organisation, said the Centre be asked to try to bring the precious diamond back.

“India won independence in 1947. But successive Governments at the Centre have made little or no attempt to bring back the Kohinoor Diamond from United Kingdom to India, the place of its origin. 

Whenever issues have been raised, Central Governments maintained on the floor of Parliament or in reply to RTI queries that Kohinoor is an Indian artefact but claims for repatriation thereof cannot be made for the same is not covered under the UNESCO Convention,1972.

“However, Central Governments also claimed that they were always in touch with their counterpart at London,” the PIL said.

The petition said the Kohinoor, “the Diamond of Diamonds is an integral part of Indian cultural heritage” and every citizen has a “fundamental right to live with dignity”. 

“The lackadaisical approach of successive Governments in making positive and meaningful diplomatic parleys has not been in national interest. All attempts on the part of the petitioners and other right thinking persons to activate the Central Government have failed,” it said.

The previous PIL on the issue was filed by ‘All India Human Rights and Social Justice Front’.