'Property may be gifted verbally'

The Lahore High Court (LHC) has ruled that properties may be transferred through verbal gifts based on natural love, affection, and personal service, adding that depriving a legal heir alone was not sufficient to invalidate such transfers unless malicious intent was proven. Justice Anwaar Hussain made these observations while hearing a complex inheritance dispute involving the sons of two wives of a deceased property holder.

The matter concerned property mutations in favour of the respondent, allegedly executed through oral gifts.

The petitioners, including Muhammad Naseem, through counsel Advocate Mian Dawood, argued that such gifts, made with the intent to deprive other legal heirs, amounted to zarar (harm), and should be set aside in light of Quranic injunctions and Hadith.

They relied on the court's earlier decision in Liaqat Ali v. Shahnaz Akhtar (2025 LHC 693) to support their claim.

However, Justice Hussain clarified that applying the principles laid down in the Liaqat Ali case to every matter without distinguishing the facts may lead to injustice and weaken the right of an individual to dispose of property lawfully during their lifetime out of genuine love and service.

Advocate Abdul Qadus Rawal, appearing for the respondent, supported the concurrent findings of lower courts, noting that no specific allegations of fraud or collusion had been substantiated.

He contended that the oral gifts were executed out of natural affection, in the presence of witnesses whose statements were recorded, and further elaborated in the respondent's written statement.

Justice Hussain acknowledged that in the Liaqat Ali case, the court had held that a gift made by a father to a single heir out of hatred for other heirs, solely to disinherit them, constitutes zarar and is invalid under Islamic principles.