Delhi High Court Dismisses Woman's Plea Claiming To Be Heir Of Bahadur Shah Zafar II, Seeking Possession Of Red Fort

The Delhi High Court on Monday dismissed a plea filed by one Sultana Begum, seeking possession of Red Fort, claiming herself to be the widow of the great grandson of the last Mughal emperor Bahadur Shah Zafar II.

She alleged that its possession was taken away from her forcibly, by British East India Company in 1857.

Justice Rekha Palli dismissed the petition on the ground of there being an inordinate delay in approaching the Court.

"The unfortunate part is you have made a petition without even trying to make out a case. Your petition itself says 1857 this happened, in 1947 this happened. That's all. You're not even trying to say anything that you have a grievance," the Court told the counsel appearing for the petitioner.

Quizzing the petitioner's counsel about the period of limitation in cases of adverse possession, Justice Palli said thus:

"Everybody knew about it. Everybody in the Court must have read this history that he was trying to exile. It was known to the world. Why was nothing filed in time? If her ancestors didn't do it, can she do it now?"

During the course of the hearing, the Court noted that while it was put to the petitioner's counsel that even if Begum's case was to be accepted- that late Bahadur Shah Zafar was illegally deprived of property by the East India Company- there was no justification as to why the petition must not be dismissed on account of there being gross delay and laches as admittedly her predecessors were aware of the purported illegality.

"In my view, merely because the petitioner is an illiterate woman there is no reason as to why, if the petitioner's predecessor were aggrieved by any action of East India Company, no steps were taken in this regard on relevant time or soon thereafter," the Court said.

"Petitioner has not been able to give any justifiable explanation for the delay. This Court is not examining the merits of the petition," it added.

Moved by Advocate Vivek More, the plea claimed Begum to be the rightful owner of Red Fort for the reason of inheriting the property from her ancestor Bahadur Shah Zafar II. It also alleged that the Government of India was illegally occupying the Fort.

The plea also sought directions on the respondent authorities to grant her compensation from the year 1857 till date for the alleged illegal possession by the Government of India.

Case Title: SULTANA BEGUM v. UNION OF INDIA & OTHERS