Supreme Court of Pakistan

Noor Muhammad and others v. Ghulam Haider and others

Civil Petition for Leave to Appeal No. 1103-L of 2016

Citation: 2026 SCP 211; approved for reporting

Articles 2A, 23, 24, 25, 35, 185(3), and 227, Constitution of PakistanMuslim law of gift (hiba): declaration, acceptance, and delivery of possessionQanun-e-Shahadat Order, 1984: burden and standard of proofLimitation Act, 1908Revenue mutation and possession among co-heirs

Question of law

The legal question

Whether an alleged oral gift recorded in a 1955 revenue mutation was legally proved so as to exclude a widow and daughters from vested inheritance rights, and whether delay, possession, and later revenue entries could substitute for proof of the gift.

Holding

What the Court decided

No. The beneficiaries had to prove the oral gift itself through cogent evidence of declaration, acceptance, and delivery of possession. A mutation is a fiscal entry and does not create or extinguish title. Possession by one co-heir is ordinarily possession for all, and later transactions could not retrospectively prove the foundational gift.

Result

Outcome and directions

The petition was converted into an appeal and allowed. Gift Mutation No. 75 dated 17 April 1955 and subsequent transactions founded upon it were declared ineffective against the petitioners' inheritance rights. The revenue authorities were directed to correct the record and determine and separate the lawful shares.

Independent analysis

Read Shahbaz Shah's legal commentary

In 2026 SCP 211, the Supreme Court held that an alleged oral gift and mutation cannot defeat women's inheritance without strict, independent proof.

Read full commentary

Precedent record

Authority and later treatment

Publication: Approved for reporting; reported citation should be checked when assigned
Primary source: Primary judgment source not attached
Later treatment: No later judicial treatment has yet been editorially verified for this record

Treatment labels are added only after the later judgment has been checked; absence of a label is not a statement that no later authority exists.

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