State must ensure every woman receives her rightful share in inheritance: SC

ISLAMABAD: The Supreme Court has ruled that the state must ensure every Pakistani woman gets her share in inheritance and called for a mechanism to assist them in securing this “divinely bestowed” right.

The observation came in a seven-page judgment released, authored by Justice Athar Minallah for a case heard by him and Justice Irfan Saadat Khan on August 29. It may be noted that the verdict was authored before Justice Minallah resigned as a judge on November 13, criticising the newly passed 27th Amendment that has practically replaced the SC with the Federal Constitutional Court as the country’s apex judicial platform.

“It is incumbent upon the state under the Constitution and the clear Injunctions of Islam, to ensure the effective and unfettered realisation of women’s right to inheritance,” the order read.

In its verdict, the SC bench dismissed an appeal filed by Abrar Hussain against a March 3, 2023, order of the Sindh High Court (SHC). The high court had rejected his plea challenging a 2021 order that had also refused his appeal against a 2019 trial court decision.

The case pertained to a property dispute between Hussain and his sister Bibi Shahida, who had filed a complaint in March 2015. Shahida said she repeatedly demanded her share after her father passed away in 2002, as well as her two other siblings later on, but Hussain refused to give it.

Hussain “took exclusive possession of the property; thereby depriving the other legal heirs of their lawful shares”, the SC judgment observed.

“The petitioner (Hussain) had no case on merits and yet persisted in litigation, thereby prolonging the deprivation of his siblings of their lawful inheritance, which devolved upon them on 1.1.2002, the date of their father’s demise,” Justice Minallah wrote.

“The challenge before this court was nothing more than an attempt to delay and frustrate the rights of the other legal heirs, amounting to a mere abuse of process,” he noted.

The state had a constitutional duty to ensure that “every woman is informed of, and enabled to claim her rightful share in inheritance without delay, fear or dependence on lengthy litigation”, the judgment read.

It added that the state must establish a “proactive and accessible mechanism through which women can be identified, reached out to,” and assisted in securing their lawful entitlements.

“Furthermore, those who, through coercion, deceit, or undue influence, deprive women of this divinely bestowed right must be held accountable under the law and made answerable,” Justice Minallah stressed.

The judgment also referred to the Federal Shariat Court’s (FSC) landmark ruling in March this year, wherein it declared that any custom — such as of ‘Chaddar’, ‘Parchi’ or ‘Haq Bakhshwai’ — that deprived women of inheritance right was “un-Islamic” and had no legal standing whatsoever.

The SC judgment observed that the right to inheritance was “not a concession granted by human law but a divinely ordained command, explicitly declared in the Holy Quran”. “Any denial or obstruction of this right is, therefore, not merely unlawful but a transgression against Divine Will,” it stated. Monitoring Desk