Woman Files Plea For Possession Of Red Fort, Delhi HC Says She’s 170 Years Too Late
I’ve always been a fan of history- I like knowing how things came to be, how they used to be, who all existed back then, etc. But I also believe that after a point history ends up becoming stories and doesn’t hold as much value as it used to. I guess that and the fact that the woman was 170 years late in asking for the possession of her alleged ancestral home, the Red Fort, is why the Delhi High Court (HC) dismissed her plea. Yep, you read that right. A woman from Howrah claimed that she was the widow of the Mughal emperor’s great-grandson and so she went to the court seeking possession of the Red Fort. The Delhi HC on the grounds of ‘inordinate delay of 170 years’ dismissed her plea.
Sultana Begum, a resident of a slum in Howrah, West Bengal claimed to be the widow of the Mughal emperor’s great-grandson Mirza Mohammad Bedar Bakht, who “successfully escaped from Rangoon”. In her petition to the Delhi HC, she sought directions to get possession of the Red Fort on the ground that she was the legal heir of the last Mughal emperor Bahadur Shah Zafar. The Delhi HC dismissed her plea.
In an alternative plea, the 68-year-old woman sought compensation from the government for illegally possessing the Red Fort. Sultana Begum in her petition stated that the government recognised Bakht as the inheritor of Bahadur Shah II in 1960 and after the death of her husband she even started receiving a pension.
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Justice Rekha Palli of Delhi HC, who was trying the case told the counsellor representing the woman, that the question the court is asking is not about whether Bahadur Shah Zafar was her ancestor, the question was how can she approach the court after all this time. The court rejected the argument stating that she is an illiterate woman.
The Delhi HC said, “According to you, the injustice was done in 1857. After 170 years you have approached the court, please explain how you can do that. We will then come to merits, how you own the Red Fort, we will see. We need to inform all other people they should not be using it without permission, that is what you want to say.”
As per reports, Sultana Begum called the Government of India an illegal occupant of the Red Fort and claimed that she has been deprived of her ancestral property for years without any compensation. Her petition also stated that the East India Company exiled Bahadur Shah Zafar and took over his property without considering the law and the principle of natural justice.
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The Delhi HC termed the petition a waste of time and dismissed it on the basis of inordinate delay. In her judgement, Justice Palli said, “In my view, merely because the petitioner is an illiterate person, there is no reason as to why if the petitioner’s predecessors were aggrieved by any action of the East India Company, no steps were taken in this regard at the relevant time or soon thereafter.”
Hearing about this case has me all kinds of amusing. I mean approaching the High Court after 170 years and then going ahead and calling the Government of India illegal occupants? That sure requires a lot of courage. Having said that, I’d really like to know if she actually is an ancestor of Bahadur Shah Zafar.
