NEW DELHI: Refusing to review its decision on a petition seeking an order to reclaim the Kohinoor diamond from the United Kingdom, the Supreme Court said it had found no ground to reconsider its earlier ruling.
A five-judge bench headed by Chief Justice of India Ranjan Gogoi and including Justices SA Bobde, NV Ramana, DY Chandrachud and SK Kaul dismissed the curative petition, saying there was no merit in it and that the petitioner had failed to make out any substantial reason why the issue needed to be kept alive.
“We have gone through the curative petition and the connected papers. In our opinion, no case is made. Hence, the curative petition is dismissed,” the order stated.
In 2017, the court had disposed of a petition filed by NGO ‘All India Human Rights and Social Justice Front’, and had then noted that it could not direct the United Kingdom on what to do with the Kohinoor diamond.
A bench headed by the then Chief Justice of India, J S Khehar, questioned how petitions seeking the return
of properties lying with a foreign government found their way to the Supreme Court, which has no jurisdiction whatsoever over such matters, that are best left to international diplomacy rather than the judiciary.
In its affidavit, the government had said it was continuing to explore ways for a satisfactory resolution over the diamond with the UK.
The restitution of Kohinoor, the government said, would require a “special agreement” between both countries.