وراثت کے مقدمات میں قانون معیاد سماعت کے اطلاق کے بارے سپریم کورٹ کا رہنما فیصلہ۔

Applicability of law of limitation in inheritance cases.

وراثت کے مقدمات میں قانون معیاد سماعت کے اطلاق کے بارے سپریم کورٹ کا رہنما فیصلہ۔
نوٹ: سپریم کورٹ نے 23 ستمبر 2021 کو اس مقدمہ کا مختصر فیصلہ سنایا تھا۔ اس وقت سے اس فیصلے پر ہزاروں کی تعداد میں تبصرے سوشل میڈیا اور دیگر میڈیا پر شائع ھو چکے ہیں بی بی سی نے بھی اس فیصلہ پر ایک طویل مضمون شائع کیا تھا۔
آج مورخہ 22 مارچ 2023 کو سپریم کورٹ نے تفصیلی فیصلہ بھی جاری کر دیا ھے

In view of the                                                      provisions of the residuary Article 120 of Schedule-I to the Limitation Act 1908, there can hardly be any suit to which the bar of limitation does not apply. As per the said Article a suit for which no period of limitation is provided elsewhere in the Schedule, the period of limitation for that suit is six years from the time when the right to sue accrues. No specific Article of Schedule-I to the Limitation Act provides a period of limitation for a suit instituted by a person, under Section 42 of the Specific Relief Act 1877, for declaration of his ownership rights to any property against a person denying his said rights; therefore, the residuary Article 120 applies to such suit. A suit instituted by a female legal heir for declaration of her ownership rights as to the property left by her deceased father in his inheritance, against her brother who denies her rights is thus governed by the provisions of Article 120. To decide whether such a suit is barred by limitation, the six-year period of limitation provided by Article 120 is to be counted from the time when the right to sue for declaration accrues as provided therein. The question, when the right to sue for declaration has accrued in a case, depends upon the facts and circumstances of that case, as it accrues when the defendant denies (actually) or is interested to deny (threatens) the rights of the plaintiff as per Section 42 of the Specific relief Act 1877.  The actual denial of rights gives rise to a compulsory cause of action and obligates the plaintiff to institute the suit for declaration of his rights, if he wants to do so, within the prescribed period of limitation; while in case of a threatened denial of rights, it is the option of the plaintiff to institute such a suit on a particular threat. On the actual denial of rights, the cause of action and the consequent right to sue matures for instituting the suit for declaration; whereas every threatened denial of rights gives rise to a fresh cause of action, and thus a fresh right to sue accrues on such a denial. This Court has, therefore, decided the question of limitation in the cases relied upon by the High Court and referred to by the counsel for the petitioners, in the peculiar facts and circumstances of each case.  

Because of the special characteristics of their relationship, the criterion for determining the actual denial of a cosharer’s rights as to joint property by the other co-sharer is different from the one that is applied between strangers. Co-sharers have a relationship of trust and support for each other. Possession of joint property with one co-sharer is considered to be for and on behalf of all the co-sharers. A co-sharer who is not in actual possession is considered to be in constructive possession of the joint property. Each co-sharer protects the joint property against trespassers for the benefit of all the co-sharers. Even if one co-sharer acquires possession of some portion of the joint property in consequence of legal proceedings initiated by him against a trespasser, he is deemed to be in possession of that portion of the joint property, on behalf of all the co-sharers. Against this backdrop, the actual denial of a co-sharer’s rights as to joint property by the other co-sharer is not to be readily inferred. Actual denial of a co-sharer’s rights by the other co-sharer may occur when the latter does something explicit in denial of the former’s rights. A mere oral negation, even made several times, of each other’s rights by the co-sharers on different disputes as to the use and sharing of the profits of the joint property, but without doing any overt act to oust a co-sharer from the ownership of the joint property, cannot be treated as an actual denial of the rights and thus does not necessitate to sue for declaration of ownership rights. 

The obligations of the brothers to their sisters, as cosharers of joint property, are further augmented when viewed in the light of the Islamic law and jurisprudence as expounded by this Court in Ghulam Ali. Because of the fiduciary and protecting relation of the brothers to their sisters, they cannot claim their possession of the joint property adverse to the rights of their sisters; possession of the brothers is taken to be the possession of their sisters. Mere omission to pay a share of the profits or produce of the joint property to their sisters by the brothers in possession of the joint property does not in itself constitute a repudiation of the sisters’ rights, nor does a wrong entry as to the inheritance rights in the revenue record oust the sisters from their ownership of the joint property as the devolution of the ownership of the property on legal heirs of a person takes place under the Islamic law of inheritance immediately on the death of that person without any intervention of anyone and without the sanction of the inheritance mutation in the revenue record. The position is, however, different when the brothers in possession of the joint property make a fraudulent sale or gift deed or get sanctioned some mutation, whether of sale or gift etc, in the revenue record claiming that their sisters have transferred their share in the joint property to them, or when they on the basis of a wrong inheritance mutation start selling out or otherwise disposing of the joint property claiming them to be the exclusive owners thereof. In such circumstances, the brothers by their overt act expressly repudiate the rights of their sisters in the joint property, and oust them from the ownership of the joint property. Their acts are, therefore, a clear and actual denial of the rights of the sisters, which give rise to a compulsory cause of action and obligates the sisters to institute the suit for declaration of their rights, if they want to do so, within the prescribed period of limitation. 