ISLAMABAD (Dunya News) – The Supreme Court has granted final relief to a woman from Dera Ismail Khan in a decades-old inheritance dispute, ordering implementation of its 2022 judgment and rejecting an attempt by the opposing side to revive a dismissed review petition.
A three-member bench comprising Justice Munib Akhtar, Justice Malik Shahzad Ahmad Khan and Justice Salahuddin Panhwar announced the decision in the case of Zaitoon Bibi, who had allegedly remained deprived of her share in her father's property since his death in 1976.
Justice Panhwar authored the judgment.
The apex court expressed strong displeasure over the failure to implement its earlier orders and stressed that compliance with judicial directions was fundamental to the administration of justice.
The court observed that the judicial system rested on certainty, discipline and the sanctity of court orders, and that compliance with such orders was mandatory.
It said treating judicial indulgence or concessions granted by a court as a mere procedural formality undermined the seriousness and sanctity of judicial orders.
According to the judgment, a conditional adjournment had been granted in the review proceedings on March 4, 2024. However, when the matter subsequently came up for hearing on Sept. 12, another adjournment was sought.
The review petition was consequently dismissed for non-prosecution after the request for another adjournment.
The opposing party later sought restoration of the review petition, but the Supreme Court rejected the request.
The court held that recalling the order dismissing the review petition would effectively amount to undoing its March 4, 2024 order under which conditional indulgence had already been extended to the party.
The judgment stressed that litigants and lawyers could not treat concessions extended by courts as routine procedural opportunities while disregarding conditions attached to them.
The underlying inheritance dispute stretches back approximately half a century.
According to the case record, Zaitoon Bibi's father died in 1976, but she remained deprived of her inheritance in the property thereafter.
The dispute eventually reached the Supreme Court, which ruled in her favour in 2022. The subsequent review petition challenging that outcome was dismissed in 2024.
By rejecting the latest attempt to have the dismissal recalled and directing implementation of its 2022 judgment, the Supreme Court has now cleared the way for enforcement of the relief previously granted to Zaitoon Bibi.