Depriving Women of their Qur’anic Shares in Inheritance:

The Application of Statute of Limitation to Claims of Inheritance by the Courts in Pakistan

Muhammad Munir

 

Abstract: This article focuses on Saadat Khan v Shahid-ur-Rehman – a decision of the Hon’ble Supreme Court of Pakistan where the limitation period as per Article 120 of Schedule-I to the Limitation Act, 1908 was applied to claims of inheritance. This article critically evaluates this case and explores whether Islamic law allows any limitation period for succession claims; whether the limitation period applies to typical civil cases under Islamic law; whether the ruling in Saadat Khan is a good decision under Islamic law; whether the Saadat Khan case is a good precedent; and how the gaps in the present law can be cured. The main findings of this article are that no limitation period is applicable to inheritance claims under Islamic law; that the apex Court has taken away a substantive right by applying a procedural law, misappropriated the mesne profits for a long time, excluded them from mutation, sold out their shares, and thereby committing several wrongs; that new legislation is required to provide a time frame within which male collaterals must properly give the shares of their sisters by changing the mutation record; that failing to do so within the strict time frame should be made actionable; and that the shares of all legal heirs are automatically transferred to them on the death of the deceased.