Who owns the Taj Mahal? Go and get the documents signed by Shah Jahan says SC to Sunni Waqf Board

New Delhi, April 11: Who owns the Taj Mahal? Go and get the documents signed by Shah Jahan, said Supreme Court to Sunni Central Waqf Board. Today lashing out at Sunni Central Waqf Board, Supreme Court asked for the documents signed by Mughal Emperor Shah Jahan to prove its claim that it owns the iconic Taj Mahal. 

Sunni Central Waqf Board declared Taj Mahal as Waqf property in 2004 against which Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) filed an appeal. In that plea, SC has sought a reply from Waqf board that what documents do they have to prove that Taj Mahal is their property.

“Who in India will believe that it (Taj) belongs to the waqf board,” asked the bench, which also comprised Justices A M Khanwilkar and D Y Chandrachud, and added that such issues must not waste the time of the Apex Court.

When the waqf board counsel told the court that Shah Jahan had himself declared it a Waqf property, the bench asked the board to show it the original deed executed by the Mughal emperor.

“Show us the signature”, the CJI told the counsel, who then sought more time to produce relevant documents.

A bench headed by Chief Justice Dipak Misra asked the counsel of the board to show it documents to validate that Shah Jahan, who had built the Taj Mahal in the memory of his wife Mumtaz Mahal in 1631, had executed a ‘waqfnama’ in favour of the board.

Waqfnama is a deed or a document through which a person expresses intention to donate a property or land for charitable purposes or waqf.

ASI Advocate ADN Rao argued that there was no wakaf nama. The lawyer said that under the 1858 proclamation, the properties taken over by Bahadur Shah Zafar, the last Mughal emperor, the British vested with the Queen. By the 1948 act, the buildings are taken over the Government of India.