HAYAT MUHAMMAD And OTHERS vs Mst. GULAB BANO And Other
This petition for leave to appeal challenged a Lahore High Court judgment concerning a land inheritance dispute involving the estate of one Maula Bakhsh, who died prior to 1948. The petitioners, collaterals of the deceased, contested the inheritance distribution which had favored the deceased's daughter. The High Court had dismissed the appeal, applying the West Pakistan Muslim Personal Law (Shariat) Act (Amendment) Ordinance, 1983. The Supreme Court examined whether the retrospective operation of the 1983 Ordinance applied to successions occurring before the enforcement of the Muslim Personal Law (Shariat) Act, 1948. Relying on the precedent established in Abdul Ghafoor v. Muhammad Shafi (PLD 1985 SC 407), the Court held that the Amending Ordinance of 1983 has complete retrospective effect. Consequently, the deceased is deemed to have inherited the property under Muslim Personal Law, and his own inheritance must be governed by the same law. Finding the High Court's judgment unexceptionable, the Supreme Court dismissed the petition, affirming that the retrospective application of the Ordinance governs successions that occurred during the period when customary law was previously applicable.
- Does the West Pakistan Muslim Personal Law (Shariat) Act (Amendment) Ordinance, 1983, have retrospective effect regarding successions occurring prior to the 1948 Act?
- Is the inheritance of a person who died before the enforcement of the Muslim Personal Law (Shariat) Act, 1948, governed by Muslim Personal Law by virtue of the 1983 Amendment?
- West Pakistan Muslim Personal Law (Shariat) Act (Amendment) Ordinance, 1983
- Muslim Personal Law (Shariat) Act, 1948
- Section 2-A, West Pakistan Muslim Personal Law (Shariat) Act (Amendment) Ordinance, 1983
ORDER
1. MUHAMMAD AFZAL ZULLAH, J.--Leave to appeal has been sought from judgment, dated 26-3-1986 of the Lahore High Court; whereby petitioners' Regular Second Appeal arising out of a land inheritance, case, was dismissed.
2. One Maula Bakhsh who owned the land in dispute died before 1948 leaving a widow Mehr Bano. The land was given to her as life estate. She remarried and the land then went to Mst. Gulab Bano an unmarried daughter of Mauls. Bakhsh. She married in 1954 whereupon mutation o' inheritance of Maula Bakhsh was sanctioned in favour of the widow, daughter anal his sister. The petitioners who are collaterals of Maula Bakhsh contested this distribution in inheritance by a suit, it was decreed by the trial Court. In appeal it was held that the daughter, keeping in view the custom of the parties, was better entitled to inherit. The High Court has, however, treated this aspect as irrelevant and decided the case on the basis of West Pakistan Muslim Personal Law (Shariat) Act (Amendment)
3. Ordinance (No. XIII) of 1983 and observed as follows: "Section 2-A (of the Ordinance) deals with "succession prior to the Act IX of 1948". Admittedly, Maula Bakhsh died prior to the enforcement of the said Act when still Custom was applicable to him. By virtue of this provision he shall be deemed to have had acquired the land from his own father under Muslim Personal Law (Shariat). This is what the enacting portion of section 2-A as also clause
(a) thereof when read together provide for."
4. This interpretation is in line with the judgment of this Court in Abdul Ghafoor and others v.
5. Muhammad Shafi and others PLD 1985 SC 407 wherein, it has been held that the Amending Ordinance of 1983 has completed retrospective effect. That being so, Maula Bakhsh would be deemed to have inherited the property under Muslim Law and therefore 113 his inheritance would be governed by the same law. Hence, no justification has been made out for interference with the impugned judgment which is unexceptionable. This petition is dismissed.