New Delhi, India - The Delhi High Court has dismissed a petition challenging the Tibetan origin of the 17th Karmapa, head of Kagyu sect of Buddhism and alleging that he has been sent by China to "annex" Sikkim and Arunachal Pradesh.
Justice Manmohan Singh has dismissed the petition filed by Shree Narayan Singh, a Buddhist, and said, "I am of the considered opinion that this court has no jurisdiction to intervene in the present matter as the same is a matter of policy as it is not against any statute or constitution".
Filing the petition through counsel Surat Singh, the petitioner alleged that Urgyen Trinlay Dorje, the 17th Karmapa, is not of Tibetan origin and "he allegedly escaped to India from China and claimed to be the 17th Karmapa of the Kagyu school of Tibetan Buddhism".
The Court also rejected Singh's argument that the Karmapa is in India to collect the Black Vajra Crown and other religious objects from the Rumtak Monastery to carry them back to the Tibetan Autonomous Region in China.
The court rejected the petitioner's claim that he has the proof that "Karmapa has been intentionally placed by the People's Republic of China in keeping with China's larger scheme of secession of Sikkim and Arunachal Pradesh and eventually, annexation of the entire Himalayas region".
Dorje was officially recognised as 17th Karmapa, head of the sect, by Tibetan spiritual leader the Dalai Lama in 1992 and in 2001, the Government of India had granted refugee status to him. He is presently based in Dharamshala in Himachal Pradesh.