One Co-Sharer cannot deprive others to inherit
PLJ 2014 SC 124 · Peshawar High Court
This case involved a long-running family inheritance dispute from what is now Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. When a man named Sarfraz died in 1931, local custom at the time excluded his daughters from inheriting, leaving his land only to his two sons. One son, Muhammad Afzal, died in 1935 without children, and his share was passed entirely to his brother Muhammad Nawaz under the same custom, again excluding Afzal's sisters, including Mst. Ayesha. Decades later, in 1993, Ayesha sued, arguing that by the time her brother Afzal died, the North-West Frontier Province Muslim Personal Law (Shariat) Application Act, 1935 had replaced customary law with Islamic inheritance law, meaning she was entitled to a 1/3rd share of his estate as a legal heir. Over the years, Nawaz and his heirs had sold parts of the inherited land to outside parties, complicating her claim. The trial court dismissed her suit as filed too late, but the appellate court and later the High Court partly ruled in her favor.
The Supreme Court held that once a Muslim dies, his heirs automatically become co-sharers in his estate, and one co-sharer cannot deny another their rightful share. Since Ayesha had been wrongfully excluded, her case fell within the law's exception for delayed claims. The Court ruled she was entitled to her 1/3rd share, but land already sold to outsiders by Nawaz's side would be adjusted against his own share, not hers. This decision reaff
یہ معاملہ موجودہ خیبر پختونخوا سے تعلق رکھنے والے ایک طویل عرصے سے جاری خاندانی وراثتی تنازعے کا تھا۔ جب سرفراز نامی شخص 1931 میں فوت ہوا تو اس وقت کے مقامی رواج کے مطابق اس کی بیٹیاں وراثت سے محروم تھیں، چنانچہ اس کی زمین صرف اس کے دو بیٹوں کو منتقل ہوئی۔ ان میں سے ایک بیٹا محمد افضل 1935 میں بغیر اولاد کے فوت ہوگیا، اور اسی رواج کے تحت اس کا حصہ مکمل طور پر اس کے بھائی محمد نواز کو منتقل کر دیا گیا، جبکہ افضل کی بہنیں، جن میں مستورہ عائشہ بھی شامل تھیں، ایک بار پھر وراثت سے محروم رہیں۔
کئی دہائیوں بعد، 1993 میں عائشہ نے مقدمہ دائر کیا اور یہ موقف اختیار کیا کہ جب اس کا بھائی افضل فوت ہوا تھا، اس وقت تک نارتھ ویسٹ فرنٹیئر پراونس مسلم پرسنل لا (شریعت) ایپلیکیشن ایکٹ 1935 رائج ہوچکا تھا، جس نے رواجی قانون کی جگہ اسلامی قانونِ وراثت کو نافذ کر دیا