The Delhi High Court
recently rejected a petition filed by Sultana Begum, a 69-year-old woman from
Kolkata, claiming her ownership of Delhi's historic Red Fort, claiming that the
Indian government had given her property (Lal Qila). Has been illegally occupied
and that the court should return the possession of this property to them or pay
compensation for it.
Read also: Best Fruits for Weight loss
Sultana Begum claims
that she is the widow of Mirza Muhammad Bedar Bakht, the great-grandson of the
last Mughal emperor Bahadur Shah and the legal heir of the Red Fort.
Sultana Begum said that
although the court had rejected her plea, she was not disappointed with the
decision. "I believe in God, and I shall one day be able to use my rights.
I'm certain that I'll get paid what I'm owed."
Sultana Begum now lives
in a poor slum in Hoda, a suburb of Kolkata.
Sultana Begum also said
that she had long ago requested the government to bring the remains of Bahadur
Shah Zafar from Rangoon and bury them at Zafar Mahal in Mehrauli.
It may be recalled that
the Central Government of India has fixed a monthly advance of Rs. 6,000 for
Sultana Begum. "What do you acquire for six thousand rupees today?"
she inquires. The government should think. Begum Sahiba is the widow of Bahadur
Muhammad Zafar's great-grandson Mirza Muhammad Bedar Bakht.
Sultana Begum is 69
years old.
She has five daughters
and a son. She said she was from Kakori, a town near Lucknow.
When the Mughal emperor
Shah Jahan moved his capital from Agra to Delhi in the middle of the 17th
century, he built the walled city of Shahjahanabad.
The Red Fort was built
as a royal palace on the banks of the Jumna River. It remained the seat of the
Mughals till the last king Bahadur Shah Zafar after Shah Jahan. After the
ouster of Bahadur Shah Zafar, the British deported him to Rangoon, the capital
of Burma. There he died and was buried.
According to Sultana
Begum, when she was three years old, her grandfather had brought her to
Kolkata. Here at the age of thirteen, she married Bidar Bakht, who was thirty
years older than him. She now lives in a small rented house in Hoda.
The Red Fort ownership
case came up for hearing in the Delhi High Court earlier this week.
Sultana Begum had said
in her petition that she was the widow of Mirza Bedar Bakht, the great-grandson
of Bahadur Shah Zafar, who had secretly escaped from Rangoon and come to India
with someone as a child. He said that the government of India had recognized Bedar
Bakht as the heir of Bahadur Shah Zafar in 1960 and after the death of Bedar
Bakht he started getting his pension.
The apex court rejected
his plea and asked him to explain why he came to the court so late.
The court asked,
"You say that in 1857 you were treated unfairly by the British East India
Company." 170 years later you have gone to court. You explain this delay.
We will then consider the aspects of this case. We will see how you own the
fort. "
The court rejected the
argument that the petitioner was poor and illiterate.
The judges said they
were not commenting on whether Bahadur Shah Zafar was their ancestor. They just
want to know how they can come to court after all this time.
Sultana Begum said that
her husband, Bedar Bakht, had fled Rangoon and spent his entire life in fear. "She
always would decline to go to Delhi when I told her she had to, and she would
claim that. Someone is going to poison you." He had also been poisoned.
"Fear was in their
psyche," he said. I was born and raised in an independent country. I'm not
afraid I will knock on every door for my rights. "
He said he had
presented all the documents he had to prove his ownership of the Red Fort in
court. It also contained a list of items that the British had seized from the
Red Fort in 1857 after the capture of the last king Bahadur Shah.
The court has rejected Sultana Begum's plea but she considers herself the real heir to the historic Red Fort in central Delhi. They are convinced that one day they will get their due.
0 Comments