On Monday, May 5, Supreme Court of India dismissed the plea of a woman who laid claim to the Red Fort in Delhi saying she is the legal heiress of the monument. The woman claimed to be the widow of great-grandson of Mughal emperor Bahadur Shah Zafar-II, and sought possession of the Red Fort.
The bench comprising Chief Justice Sanjiv Khanna and Justice Sanjay Kumar termed the plea filed by Sultana Begum as “misconceived” and “meritless” at the outset and refused to entertain it.
Earlier, in December last year, a division bench of the Delhi High Court had dismissed the appeal by Begum against the December 2021 decision of a High Court single judge.
When Sultana Begum’s Counsel argued that “the petitioner is the family member of the first freedom fighter of the country, CJI Sanjiv Khanna asked, “Why only Red Fort, then why not forts at Agra, Fatehpuri Sikri, etc”.
On December 20, 2021, a single judge of High Court had dismissed Begum’s petition seeking possession of the Red Fort taken illegally by the British East India Company, saying there was no justification for the inordinate delay in approaching the court after over 150 years.
The petition had 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.
