Widow of Bahadur Shah Zafar's great grandson in Delhi HC lays claim on Red Fort as legal heir
New Delhi, Dec 20: A woman claiming to be the widow of great grandson of Mughal king Bahadur Shah Zafar-II moved the Delhi High Court on Monday seeking that the Red Fort which was illegally taken over by British East India Company be handed over to her on the grounds that she was the legal heir.
Dimissing the plea, Justice Rekha Palli said there was no justification for the inordinate delay in approaching the court after over 150 years.
Petitioner Sultana Begum said she was the widow of late Mirza Mohammed Bedar Bakht who died on May 22, 1980. She said she was the widow of the great-grandson Bahadur Shah Zafar-II of Delhi and his rights were taken away by the British East India Company arbitrarily and forcefully.
The judge said: My history is very weak but you claim injustice was done to you by the British East India Company in 1857. Why is there a delay of over 150 years? What were you doing for all these years?
The court said, Everybody knew about it. Everyone 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 did not do it, can she do it now?
The petition, filed through advocate Vivek More, claimed that the family had been deprived of their property by the British following the first war of Independence in 1857, after which the king was exiled from the country and possession of the Red Fort was taken away from the Mughals.
The plea said the woman is the owner of the Red Fort because she inherited this property from her ancestor Bahadur Shah Zafar-II, who died in November 1862 at the age of 82, and alleged that the government of India is illegal occupant of the property.
The court also rejected the submission made by the petitioner's counsel that she was an illiterate woman due to which she could not approach earlier.
The plea sought direction to the Centre to hand over the Red Fort of Delhi to the petitioner or give adequate compensation to her and also grant her compensation from 1857 to till date for alleged illegal possession by the government.
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Another North Goa nightclub sealed; Kejriwal says corruption led to fire tragedy
Panaji (PTI): As part of a crackdown against tourist establishments violating laws and safety norms in the aftermath of the Arpora fire tragedy, Goa authorities on Saturday sealed a renowned club at Vagator and revoked the fire department NOC of another club.
Cafe CO2 Goa, located on a cliff overlooking the Arabian Sea at Vagator beach in North Goa, was sealed. The move came two days after Goya Club, also in Vagator, was shut down for alleged violations of rules.
Elsewhere, campaigning for local body polls, AAP leader Arvind Kejriwal said the fire incident at Birch by Romeo Lane nightclub at Arpora, which claimed 25 lives on December 6, happened because the BJP government in the state was corrupt.
An inspection of Cafe CO2 Goa by a state government-appointed team revealed that the establishment, with a seating capacity of 250, did not possess a no-objection certificate (NOC) of the Fire and Emergency Services Department. The club, which sits atop Ozrant Cliff, also did not have structural stability, the team found.
The Fire and Emergency Services on Saturday also revoked the NOC issued to Diaz Pool Club and Bar at Anjuna as the fire extinguishers installed in the establishment were found to be inadequate, said divisional fire officer Shripad Gawas.
A notice was issued to Nitin Wadhwa, the partner of the club, he said in the order.
Campaigning at Chimbel village near Panaji in support of his party's Zilla Panchayat election candidate, Aam Aadmi Party leader Kejriwal said the nightclub fire at Arpora happened because of the "corruption of the Pramod Sawant-led state government."
"Why this fire incident happened? I read in the newspapers that the nightclub had no occupancy certificate, no building licence, no excise licence, no construction licence or trade licence. The entire club was illegal but still it was going on," he said.
"How could it go on? Couldn't Pramod Sawant or anyone else see it? I was told that hafta (bribe) was being paid," the former Delhi chief minister said.
A person can not work without bribing officials in the coastal state, Kejriwal said, alleging that officers, MLAs and even ministers are accepting bribes.
