NEW DELHI: Sultana Begum, who claims to be the great-granddaughter-in-law of Mughal emperor Bahadur Shah Zafar, moved to the Indian Supreme Court seeking possession of the Red Fort on account of being the legal ‘heir’.
According to the Indian media, the court on Monday rejected the plea, describing it at the outset as “misconceived” and “meritless,” and refused to entertain the petition filed against the Delhi High Court order.
Earlier, the Delhi High Court dismissed her request to take possession of Delhi’s historic Red Fort or receive compensation for it.
“The petitioner is a family member of the first freedom fighter of the country,” the counsel said. Chief Justice Sanjiv Khanna said if the arguments are considered, then “why only Red Fort, then why not forts at Agra, Fatehpur Sikri, etc”.
The petition claimed the family was deprived of their property by the Britishers after the First War of Independence in 1857, following which the emperor was exiled from the country, and possession of the Red Fort was forcefully taken away from the Mughals.
It claimed that 60-year-old Sultana Begum was the owner of the Red Fort as she inherited it from her ancestor, Bahadur Shah Zafar-II, who died on November 11, 1862, and the government of India was an illegal occupant of the property.
The Economic Times reported that the Indian government acknowledged the royal lineage of Sultana Begum in 1960 and granted him a pension. She is the widow of Mirza Mohammed Bedar Bakht, Zafar’s great-grandson.
After Bakht’s death in May 1980, Sultana Begum began receiving the pension from August of the same year.
