108-year-old property feud lands in Lahore High Court

LAHORE: The Lahore High Court on Monday reserved its decision on a petition contesting the division of inherited property in a dispute that dates back more than a century and involves around 666 acres of land.

Justice Mohsin Akhtar Kayani heard the petition filed by Sadiq Masih and reserved the verdict after both sides completed their arguments.

During the hearing, counsel for the petitioner told the court that the property had originally belonged to Wasa Singh. He said revenue records from 1909 showed Wasa Singh’s two sons as co-owners of the land.

The petitioner’s lawyer argued, however, that in 1918 revenue authorities wrongly declared one of the sons unmarried and, on that basis, transferred the entire property to the other son. He maintained that the step was legally defective and not backed by evidence.

The court questioned how records more than 100 years old could now be verified or set aside. Justice Kayani observed that either a direct heir of the original owner would have to prove the claim or there would need to be reliable documentary material establishing lineage. The bench noted that such evidence appeared to be missing in the case before it.

The petitioner’s counsel further submitted that the property was transferred in February 1947 to the heirs of Budha Singh. He told the court that securing original marriage or family documents from the pre-Partition period was extremely difficult because of the passage of time and historical upheaval.

He also said that the National Database and Registration Authority had issued the death certificate of the petitioner’s grandfather in 2019 after verification.

The bench, however, raised concerns over the issuance of a death certificate nearly a century after the alleged death and questioned what evidentiary weight such a document could carry in the matter.

Century-old records under scrutiny

The proceedings focused on whether the petitioner had been able to establish a legally sustainable claim to the land through lineage and documentary proof. The court’s observations during the hearing indicated concern over the practical and legal difficulties involved in revisiting revenue entries made more than a hundred years ago.

The dispute centres on inheritance entries made in the early 20th century and subsequent transfers recorded before Partition. The petition challenges the manner in which the inherited property was divided and later transferred, with the petitioner seeking to contest those historical entries before the high court.