LAHORE: Justice Sultan Tanveer of Lahore High Court (LHC) Friday accepted a petition filed by Samira Bibi in a dispute over land given as haq mehr (dower).
The court set aside a lower court’s decision that had allowed payment of Rs1.6 million instead of the land and remanded the case for fresh hearing.
The LHC held that after signing the marriage contract (Nikahnama), a wife cannot be deprived of her agreed rights. According to the four-page judgment, the parties were married in 2015, and two acres of land were stipulated as dower.
Instead of transferring the land, the husband paid her Rs1.6 million based on the land’s 2015 value.
The trial court had upheld substitution of the land with cash payment. However, the high court noted the marriage contract clearly specified two acres of land as dower.
If the land is to be replaced with a monetary payment, it must be calculated according to the current market value of the land, the court ruled.
The judgment further stated a Nikahnama is a civil contract, and its terms must be interpreted in accordance with intentions of the parties. When interpreting any clause of a marriage contract, it is necessary to ascertain the parties’ true intentions, the court observed.
Courts must also determine whether the woman was fully aware of her rights at the time of marriage, it said.
The court emphasised a husband cannot take advantage of any ambiguity to deprive his wife of her rights and held the trial court had failed to correctly interpret the dower clause.
