Widow, two daughters win inheritance case after 71-year legal battle<\/a><\/p>\nThe court consequently set aside the decisions of the lower courts, including the trial court judgment and the Lahore High Court judgment, which had upheld the challenge to the gift deed.<\/p>\n
Background of the Case<\/h2>\n
Following the partition of British India in 1947, millions of Muslims migrated to Pakistan. To facilitate the rehabilitation and permanent settlement of displaced persons, Parliament enacted the Displaced Persons (Land Settlement) Act, 1958.<\/p>\n
The Supreme Court observed that the purpose of the law was to provide permanent settlement to displaced persons on land as compensation for property they had lost or left behind in India.<\/p>\n
The right to seek allotment under the law was therefore limited to those who qualified as displaced persons as a result of migration from India.<\/p>\n
Among those who migrated to Pakistan was Nawab Bibi, the widow of Abdul Karim. She applied to the Chief Settlement Commissioner for the grant of land under the 1958 Act.<\/p>\n
Her application was accepted, and the disputed properties were allotted to her. She later transferred the properties to her daughter through the registered gift deed.<\/p>\n
Husband\u2019s Heirs Challenge Gift<\/h2>\n
The respondents, claiming to be collaterals of Abdul Karim, challenged the gift deed and sought its cancellation.<\/p>\n
They argued that Nawab Bibi had occupied Abdul Karim\u2019s properties in India as a limited owner and that they were entitled to a 3\/8 share in his estate. They contended that the properties allotted to Nawab Bibi in Pakistan had been granted in exchange for Abdul Karim\u2019s properties left behind in India and that they therefore had a share in the allotted property.<\/p>\n
According to the respondents, Nawab Bibi\u2019s gift of the property to her daughter had deprived them of their inheritance rights and was therefore void and ineffective.<\/p>\n
The defendants, however, argued that the disputed properties had been allotted to Nawab Bibi under the 1958 Act in her own right. The allotment had vested absolute ownership in her, giving her the right to sell, mortgage, gift or otherwise transfer the property.<\/p>\n
SC Upholds Widow\u2019s Ownership<\/h2>\n
The Supreme Court held that the allotment order in favour of Nawab Bibi had never been successfully challenged and had therefore attained finality.<\/p>\n
Referring to Section 16 of the Displaced Persons (Land Settlement) Act, 1958, the court noted that land on which a displaced person was permanently settled under the law vested absolutely in that person.<\/p>\n
The court held that Nawab Bibi had consequently acquired absolute title and exclusive proprietary rights over the disputed properties.<\/p>\n
The Supreme Court further observed that the registering authority had satisfied itself regarding the genuineness of the allotment order, Nawab Bibi\u2019s title, her offer of the gift, its acceptance by her daughter and the delivery of possession before registering the gift deed.<\/p>\n
In these circumstances, the court held that the gift deed executed by Nawab Bibi as the exclusive owner of the property was valid and could not be challenged by the respondents.<\/p>\n
Heirs Had No Right to Allotted Property<\/h2>\n
The Supreme Court rejected the argument that the disputed properties had been allotted to Nawab Bibi in exchange for Abdul Karim\u2019s entire estate in India.<\/p>\n
The court noted that the respondents had neither claimed to have migrated from India nor established that they qualified as displaced persons entitled to seek allotment under the 1958 Act.<\/p>\n
They had also failed to produce evidence establishing that the disputed properties had been allotted against Abdul Karim\u2019s entire estate left behind in India.<\/p>\n
The court further observed that Nawab Bibi had not received the property as an automatic transfer of her deceased husband\u2019s estate. Rather, she had applied to the rehabilitation authorities in her own capacity as a displaced person and had been granted the property on that basis.<\/p>\n
The respondents had also failed to raise an objection to her claim before the rehabilitation authorities or submit an independent claim for allotment.<\/p>\n
As a result, the Supreme Court concluded that they had no right, title or interest in the disputed properties and therefore lacked the legal standing to challenge the gift deed.<\/p>\n
Claim of Collateral Heirs Rejected<\/h2>\n
The court also addressed the respondents\u2019 claim that they were collateral heirs of Abdul Karim.<\/p>\n
It observed that collateral heirs are relatives who are neither direct descendants nor direct ascendants of the deceased. Their inheritance rights arise only after the rights of the legally entitled descendants and ascendants have been determined.<\/p>\n
The court noted that where a succession claim is based on a remote relationship, it must be supported by strong and reliable oral and documentary evidence, including relevant birth and marriage records.<\/p>\n
In the present case, the respondents failed to establish their entitlement to the disputed properties.<\/p>\n
The Supreme Court therefore dismissed their claim and upheld Nawab Bibi\u2019s right to gift the property to her daughter.<\/p>\n
The court also observed that the respondents\u2019 suit was barred by limitation, as the gift deed had been executed in 1963 and the subsequent challenge was brought after a substantial delay.<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
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Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"ISLAMABAD: The Supreme Court on Wednesday ruled in favour of a widow who migrated to Pakistan from India after Partition in 1947, holding that the property she had been allotted in Pakistan was never owned by her deceased husband and that his heirs had no right to challenge her gift of the property to her daughter. Justice Jamal Khan Mandokhail…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":73466,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_kad_blocks_custom_css":"","_kad_blocks_head_custom_js":"","_kad_blocks_body_custom_js":"","_kad_blocks_footer_custom_js":"","_kad_post_transparent":"","_kad_post_title":"","_kad_post_layout":"","_kad_post_sidebar_id":"","_kad_post_content_style":"","_kad_post_vertical_padding":"","_kad_post_feature":"","_kad_post_feature_position":"","_kad_post_header":false,"_kad_post_footer":false,"_kad_post_classname":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-73465","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-pakistan"],"taxonomy_info":{"category":[{"value":16,"label":"Pakistan"}]},"featured_image_src_large":["https:\/\/newsvog.com\/ur\/wp-content\/uploads\/SC-1024x576.jpg",1024,576,true],"author_info":{"display_name":"frkhokhar@gmail.com","author_link":"https:\/\/newsvog.com\/ur\/author\/frkhokhargmail-com"},"comment_info":0,"category_info":[{"term_id":16,"name":"Pakistan","slug":"pakistan","term_group":0,"term_taxonomy_id":16,"taxonomy":"category","description":"All about Pakistan","parent":0,"count":4875,"filter":"raw","cat_ID":16,"category_count":4875,"category_description":"All about Pakistan","cat_name":"Pakistan","category_nicename":"pakistan","category_parent":0}],"tag_info":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsvog.com\/ur\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/73465","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsvog.com\/ur\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsvog.com\/ur\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsvog.com\/ur\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsvog.com\/ur\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=73465"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/newsvog.com\/ur\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/73465\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":73467,"href":"https:\/\/newsvog.com\/ur\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/73465\/revisions\/73467"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsvog.com\/ur\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/73466"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsvog.com\/ur\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=73465"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsvog.com\/ur\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=73465"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsvog.com\/ur\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=73465"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}