Supreme Court Overturns Lower Court Decisions on Inheritance
The Supreme Court of Pakistan has set aside judgments and decrees passed by the Trial Court, the Appellate Court, and the Lahore High Court regarding inheritance rights, in a case that highlights the systemic deprivation of female heirs.
A two-member bench, comprising Justice Shahid Bilal Hassan and Justice Shakeel Ahmed, conducted the hearing of an appeal against the Lahore High Court judgment dated 26-01-2016. The Court ruled that the right of inheritance is not a bounty to be bestowed at the pleasure of male family members nor a concession dependent upon custom, convenience, or familial goodwill.
Facts of the Case: Fabricated Gift and Revenue Entries
The brief facts of the case involve Roshan son of Bora, owner of the suit property, who died in 1955. Consequent upon his death, Inheritance Mutation No.74 was entered on 04.04.1955 in favor of his legal heirs. On the same day, Mutation No.75 was entered on the basis of an alleged oral gift purportedly made by the widow and daughters of the deceased in favor of his two sons/brothers. Both mutations were sanctioned on 17.04.1955.
The plaintiffs/petitioners claimed that the alleged gift never took place and that Mutation No.75 was wrongly sanctioned to deprive the female heirs of their lawful inheritance. The suit was dismissed by the Trial Court, and the appeal met the same fate before the Appellate Court. A Civil Revision filed before the Lahore High Court was also dismissed via judgment dated 26.01.2016.
Supreme Court's Observations on Islamic and Constitutional Rights
The Supreme Court declared, “It is a vested Shari and legal right which devolves upon the heirs immediately upon the death of the predecessor-in-interest and cannot be defeated through private arrangements, social pressures, dubious revenue entries or procedural stratagems.”
The Court added that it has repeatedly emphasised that the law of inheritance occupies a unique position in Islamic jurisprudence because it embodies the Divine scheme of distribution of wealth and seeks to ensure economic justice within the family and society at large.
The Court noted that the experience of the courts demonstrates that women continue to be deprived of their lawful inheritance through a variety of devices, including fabricated gifts, manipulated revenue entries, fraudulent relinquishments, coercive family arrangements, and prolonged litigation designed to exhaust those asserting their rights.
Social Injustice and Constitutional Obligations
The Court observed that deprivation of women from inheritance is not an isolated phenomenon but a recurring social injustice that survives despite the clear commands of Islam. The persistence of such disputes reveals that the problem is not merely legal but societal. The denial of inheritance rights often begins not in courtrooms but within homes, families, and communities where women are expected to sacrifice rights guaranteed to them by religion and law in the name of tradition, family honour, or social convenience.
The judgment also referenced constitutional provisions: Article 2A incorporates the principles of democracy, freedom, equality, tolerance, and social justice as enunciated by Islam; Article 25 guarantees equality before law and equal protection of law; Articles 23 and 24 recognize and protect the right to acquire, hold, and enjoy property and prohibit deprivation thereof save in accordance with law; Article 35 obligates the State to protect the family, the mother, and the child; and Article 227 mandates that all laws shall be brought in conformity with the Injunctions of Islam.
The Court maintained that these constitutional guarantees, when read in conjunction with the Islamic injunctions relating to inheritance, leave no room for ambiguity. The State is not a passive spectator where women are deprived of property lawfully devolving upon them through succession.
Positive Obligation on State and Society
The Supreme Court stated, “The Constitution, therefore, imposes a positive obligation upon all organs of the State, including the courts and revenue authorities, to ensure that female heirs are able to obtain, retain and enjoy their lawful inheritance in a practical and effective manner and not merely as a matter of abstract legal entitlement.” It further said that any custom, practice, arrangement, or device which has the effect of excluding a female heir from her lawful share not only offends the injunctions of Islam but is also inconsistent with the constitutional commitment to equality, dignity, social justice, and protection of property rights.
The Court also emphasised that the responsibility does not rest upon the State alone. Families, community leaders, Islamic scholars and orators, members of the legal profession, revenue authorities, and civil society all share a collective obligation to ensure that the rights conferred by Almighty Allah are neither diluted nor defeated.
