Women's Inheritance Rights Are Vested Sharia Right, Supreme Court Rules

The Supreme Court has definitively ruled that women's inheritance rights are an inherent Sharia and legal entitlement, immediately devolving upon all heirs upon the death of the family head. The court stressed that this right cannot be circumvented by private arrangements, social coercion, dubious land record entries, or procedural manipulations. "The right of inheritance is not a bounty to be bestowed at the pleasure of male family members, nor a concession dependent upon custom, convenience or familial goodwill," Justice Shahid Bilal Hassan stated. This landmark judgment, which sets aside a 2017 decision by the Lahore High Court's Bahawalpur bench, resolves a 71-year-old family dispute. The case originated after the death of Roshan in 1955, whose heirs were registered for inheritance mutation No. 74. On the same day, mutation No. 75 was recorded based on an alleged verbal gift from the widow and heirs.

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The right of inheritance is not a bounty to be bestowed at the pleasure of male family members, nor a concession dependent upon custom, convenience or familial goodwill.