Centre gets notice in Nizam's jewellery case

The Delhi high court on Monday issued show-cause notices to the central government and the Central Bureau of Investigation on an application challenging the transfer of the Nizam of Hyderabad's jewellery to the National Museum in the capital.

Issuing the notices, a division bench comprising Chief Justice Ajay Prakash Misra and Justice Dalveer Bhandari directed central government standing counsel Sarabjit Sharma to reply by the next date of hearing on November 13.

The Centre has also been asked to file its reply to the regular joint petition filed by S P Singh and the National Archives and Museum Employees Union by that date.

NAMEU counsel R P Gupta urged the court that the transfer of jewellery from the custody of the Reserve Bank of India, Bombay, to the National Museum should be stopped till the pendency of the matter in the court.

The application stated that the petitioner had found out through a brochure published by the National Museum that the jewellery, worth Rs 15 billion, which the government had bought from the Nizam, was going to be displayed at an exhibition after transferring the custody of the same to the museum.

Gupta contended that, in view of the adverse comments made in the comptroller and auditor general of India's reports and the CBI's bulletins, it is in the interest of justice that the government may be restrained from transferring the custody of the jewellery to the National Museum, whose integrity was doubtful.

He said the pearls embedded in the jewellery were unique, historic and priceless and chances of interpolation was very high because of the maladministration of the National Museum and also on account of lack of proper security.

UNI