The widow of the great-grandson of Bahadur Shah Zafar-II wants to occupy the Red Fort, the court rejected the petition

New Delhi : Sultana Begum, the widow of the great-grandson of Mughal emperor Bahadur Shah Zafar-II, had demanded possession of the Red Fort as the legal heir. She had filed a petition in the Delhi High Court, which was rejected by the court.

The Delhi High Court on Friday December 13 , 2024 dismissed the plea of ​​the widow of the great-grandson of Mughal emperor Bahadur Shah Zafar-II seeking possession of the Red Fort as her legal heir. A bench of Acting Chief Justice Vibhu Bakhru and Justice Tushar Rao Gedela dismissed Sultana Begum’s appeal against the December 2021 verdict of the HC single judge. The court said the challenge was filed after a delay of over two-and-a-half years.

Begum said she could not file the appeal due to her poor health condition and the demise of her daughter. “We find the said explanation inadequate, considering that the delay is over two-and-a-half years. The petition was also dismissed (by the single judge) as being inordinately delayed for several decades. The application for condonation of delay is consequently also dismissed, the appeal being barred by limitation,” it said.

On December 20, 2021, a single judge dismissed Begum’s plea seeking possession of the Red Fort illegally taken over by the British East India Company, saying there was no justification for the inordinate delay in approaching the court after over 150 years. The plea, filed through advocate Vivek More, claimed that the family was dispossessed of their property by the British after the First War of Independence in 1857 following which the emperor was exiled from the country and the possession of the Red Fort was forcefully taken away.

It claimed that 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 at the age of 82 and that the Government of India was illegally occupying the property. The plea sought a direction to the Centre to hand over the Red Fort to the petitioner or pay adequate compensation in addition to compensation for the alleged illegal occupation by the government from 1857 to date.