A burial in 1984 set off a legal battle that would stretch across two decades, two courts, and ultimately end at the Gujarat High Court where it has now been firmly shut.
The dispute, according to reports, centres on a simple but contested claim: that a Vadodara man had the religious and customary right to bury his family members near the tomb of Qutbuddin Muhammad Khan at Danteshwar Hajira, or Bada Hajira, as it is locally known.
The Gujarat High Court last week said he had no such right, and had failed to prove he ever did.
The trouble began when Pirzada Saiyed Bahauddin B. Kadri buried his daughter near the tomb in 1984 without seeking permission.
The Collector of Vadodara moved swiftly, issuing a notice in February 1986 that restrained him from any further burial activity in the area.
Kadri pushed back. He claimed to be the Dharma Guru of the Qadariya sect and a lineal descendant of the late Qutbuddin himself, and argued that his family had for generations been permitted to bury its members near the tomb as part of established religious custom.
He wanted the notice declared illegal and the state permanently stopped from interfering.
The trial court believed him, and in 2003 decreed the suit in his favour.
The First Appellate Court did not, reversing the decree in 2005 and dismissing the suit altogether. Kadri then took the matter to the High Court.s
Before Justice JC Doshi, his advocate MTM Hakim argued that the appellate court had made a serious error by leaning on documents the state had never formally exhibited during trial, without even ruling on whether they were admissible.
He went further, arguing that even if those documents were found to be relevant, the appellate court ought to have remanded the matter under Order XLI Rule 23A CPC, giving both sides a fresh opportunity to lead evidence, rather than deciding the issue itself.
He also argued that a monument being protected under the Ancient Monuments and Archaeological Sites and Remains Act, 1958 could not simply wipe out long-standing customary rights of religious observance.
The state’s response was straightforward. Assistant Government Pleader Urvashi Purohit pointed out that the appellate court had not introduced any new material (it had only looked at documents the plaintiff had himself placed on record. Revenue entries, government notifications, archaeological records) all of it was his own paperwork.
And these, she reportedly said, were public documents whose evidentiary value was not open to question.
The state also drew attention to the fact that Bada Hajira had been a protected monument since 1938, first under the Baroda State and then under the 1958 Act.
The High Court sided with the state on every count. On the documents, it held that the plaintiff could hardly look away from material he had himself brought to court, exhibited or not.
On the question of burials, it noted that Section 19 of the 1958 Act prohibits excavation and digging in protected areas — and that burial, by its very nature, involves digging.
The more damaging finding, though, was on the customary rights claim.
The court found it entirely unproven. Kadri had not led any evidence to show he was a lineal descendant of Qutbuddin. The pedigree he submitted did not even align with what he had pleaded.
His elder brother, who, according to the plaint itself, had been caring for the tomb, was never examined, though he was presumably available.
The court, according to a report, noted pointedly that the suit was rather like “an ignoramus story.”
There was also a procedural gap that did not help his case: the Archaeological Survey of India, which oversees the monument, had never been made a party to the suit.
Finding no illegality in the appellate court’s reasoning and no substantial question of law to examine, the High Court dismissed the second appeal.
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