SC rules inheritance rights of the vulnerable must be safeguarded

ISLAMABAD: The Supreme Court has ruled that the inheritance rights of vulnerable members of society, including women, must be protected.

A three-member bench of the apex court, headed by Chief Justice Qazi Faez Isa and comprising Justice Naeem Akhtar Afghan and Justice Shahid Bilal Hassan, issued a written order in a case related to inheritance. The court had heard the case on October 2, 2024.

The court imposed a fine of Rs300,000 on the petitioner, Tanveer Sarfaraz Khan, for filing a frivolous petition and employing dishonest tactics. The petitioner was directed to pay this amount to his sisters, who had been deprived of their legal shares.

The court further ruled that the respondents (sisters) would be justified in claiming mesne profits for the period during which the petitioner fails to comply with the consent/joint statement.

“Unfortunately, a practice has developed whereby those defying Shariah and the law, facilitated by some lawyers, adopt various nefarious means, including taking the plea of pending litigation, to deprive legal heirs of what is rightfully theirs,” stated the two-page written order authored by Chief Justice Qazi Faez Isa.

According to the order, the case pertains to the estate of Sarfraz Ahmad Khan, who passed away in 2010, leaving behind five sons, five daughters, and a widow. His estate included a house constructed on 12 marlas and 218 square feet in Rawalpindi (“the Property”).

The court noted that when the petitioner’s sisters claimed their inheritance, the petitioner initially agreed to have the property evaluated and to pay the legal heirs of Sarfraz Ahmad Khan their respective shares according to Shariah law. However, after the property was evaluated, the petitioner, Tanveer Sarfaraz, reneged on his commitment and challenged his signed “Consent/Joint Statement” before the high court.

The judgment noted that, when confronted, the petitioner’s lawyer claimed that his client did not understand what he had signed but also conceded that the counsel had been present at the time. When the court asked the petitioner about his background, he said that he had retired a year ago as an assistant in the education department and confirmed that he could read and write. “Therefore, the ground taken by him to challenge the ‘Consent/Joint Statement’ was unjustified,” the court held.

The petitioner’s lawyer then referred to a “Suit for Partition, Declaration, Specific Performance, and Permanent Injunction” filed by the petitioner on December 15, 2021. However, the court noted that the petitioner only filed this suit two months after his sisters had sought their share in the inheritance on October 11, 2021 — more than 11 years after Sarfraz Ahmad Khan’s death.

The court further clarified that the pendency of this suit had no effect on the estate of Sarfraz Ahmad Khan and did not exclude the legal heirs from their inheritance. The court reiterated that the property of a deceased Muslim vests in his legal heirs immediately upon his death. “We have repeatedly held that the inheritance rights of vulnerable members of society, including women, must be protected,” the court emphasized. The court ruled that the petitioner’s frivolous petition and dishonest tactics warranted its dismissal with costs. The petitioner was directed to pay Rs300,000 equally to the respondents who had been deprived of their rightful shares. “The respondents are also entitled to claim mesne profits for all the days that the petitioner fails to comply with the said ‘Consent/Joint Statement,’” the court concluded.