LHC rules in favor of woman's inheritance claim after 27 years

The Lahore High Court (LHC) has ruled in favour of Sadiqan Begum, a woman from Toba Tek Singh, allowing her to reclaim her rightful share of her father's inheritance, after nearly 27 years of being wrongly deprived of her share with the help of a fraudulent gift mutation.

Justice Khalid Ishaq of the LHC overturned earlier decisions made by the trial and appellate courts, which had sided with Sadiqan Begum's brother, Muhammad Siddique, in a dispute over the inheritance. The conflict stemmed from an oral gift mutation made in 1998, which the court found to be fraudulent.

The property in question, which measures 59 kanals and 18 marlas, was owned by Muhammad Ibrahim, the father of Sadiqan Begum and Muhammad Siddique. After his death on October 8, 1998, Sadiqan, who was uneducated and from a rural background, trusted her brother's word that the inheritance had been properly shared and she had received her fair share of the estate.

However, years later, when Sadiqan wanted to sell her share of the land to support her children after her husband's death, she was told she had no legal claim to the property. Upon investigation, she found that her brother had executed a fraudulent gift mutation in his favour without her knowledge or consent.

In court, Sadiqan's brother defended the gift mutation, claiming that their father had given him the property through an oral agreement before his death and that the mutation was approved in a public gathering. He also stated that he had been in possession of the land since then.

However, Justice Ishaq rejected his claims, finding them to be unsupported by evidence. He criticized the common practice of using oral gifts to defraud heirs, particularly women. "This case highlights a recurring pattern in which women are denied their rightful inheritance through false claims of oral gifts," Justice Ishaq said in his ruling.

He also remarked, "There is a growing trend of using fabricated claims to deprive daughters, sisters, mothers, widows, and orphans of their legal inheritance. The oral gift is one of the most common methods used for this injustice."

The court ruled that the alleged gift was never legally proven and declared the gift mutation invalid. As a result, Sadiqan Begum was granted her rightful share of the property.

Legal experts have praised the decision, calling it a strong stand against the widespread issue of women being deprived of their inheritance rights, especially in rural areas of Pakistan. Social pressures and false oral gift claims have long been used to exclude female heirs from owning property. The ruling is seen as a step toward protecting women's rights to inheritance.