"Life estate is unknown to Muslim law as administered in India, but life interest can be created." Discuss.

Question: "Life estate is unknown to Muslim law as administered in India, but life interest can be created." Discuss. [UPJS 2003]

Find the question and answer of Muslim Law only on Legal Bites. ["Life estate is unknown to Muslim law as administered in India, but life interest can be created." Discuss.]

Answer

Fyzee states: "Estate" is a term of art in English law and has a definite meaning in its technical sense. A "life estate" implies the transfer of the corpus of the property to a certain person with certain limitations as to its use and alienations.

In this technical sense of the term, a life estate was declared by the Privy Council in the Sardar Nawazish Ali Khan v. Sardar Ali Raza Khan, 1948 SCC Online PC 17, to be unknown to Muhammadan law as administered in India, but life interests were well known and would be created. The court observed that there was no such thing as a life estate or vested remainder in Mohammedan Law as understood in English Law, but a gift for life would be construed as an interest for life in the usufruct.

Life interest

In Muslim law, therefore, both the corpus (wyn) and usufruct (munifi) of a property can be the subject matter of a gift. A gift of the usufruct for a definite period is called life interest. Life interest may be created in the following ways:

1. By family waqfs
2. By Will
3. By the rule in the Umjad Ali Khan case
4. By the rule in the Ashraf Khan case
5. By the Nawazish Ali Khan case
6. By family settlements

1. By family waqf - A makes a waqf of his property for the benefit of his children and descendants, and on the extinction of the line of his lineal descendants, to a school. The children and descendants will have a life interest in the property generation after generation.

2. By Will - A life interest can be created by "will". Thus, if a life interest is given by will to A for life and thereafter to B, the life interest in favour of A is valid.

3. By the rule in the "Umjad Ali Khan case".The point in issue in this case was: Whether a real transfer of property by a donor in his lifetime under the Muslim law reserving not the dominion over the corpus of the property, nor any share of dominion over the corpus, but simply stipulating for and obtaining a rights to the recurring produce during his lifetime, is an incomplete gift by the Muslim law? Their Lordships of the Privy Council held both the gift and the condition a valid. This is a life interest. (Nawab Umjad Ally Khan v. Mohumdee Begum, (1867) 11 Moo IA 517)

4. By the rule in the "Ashraf Khan case" - The decisions of the Privy Council in Hameeda v. Dublin", Abdul Gafur v. Nizamuddin, and some of the High Courts in India have expressed the opinion that life interest is nothing more than a gift with the condition. If the condition is repugnant to the gift, the condition is void and the gift is valid. Thus, it was held that if A gave B a life interest in a certain property, B took it absolutely. (Amjad Khan v. Ashraf Khan, 1929 SCC Online Cal 224: (1959-51)

5. By the "Nawazish Ali Khan case" The propositions of law laid down by the Privy Council in this case are:

(a) That Muslim law makes no distinction between real and personal property nor does it recognize the splitting up of ownership of land into estates.

(b) That there is a clear distinction between the corpus of the property and its usufruct

(c) That interests for a limited duration can, therefore, be lawfully made. (Sardar Nawazish Ali Khan v. Sardar Ali Raza Khan, 1948 SCC Online PC 17)

6. By family settlements.-An agreement settling disputes between parties of a family and which also involves a transaction for consideration is called "family settlement". Life interest may be created by such agreements.

Shiite law of life interests

The scope of a life interest is somewhat broader in Shiite law, which recognizes its following three forms:

1. Umra, the grant of usufruct for life.

2. Sukna, the right to reside in a house for life.

3. Ruqba, the right to lake usufruct for a fixed period.

Following are the essentials of a life interest in Shiite law:

• Delivery of possession to the life-tenant.
• Existence of the grantee. When there are many grants, succeeding grantees should be in existence at the time when their interest is.
• The subject matter of life interest should be such as may be used with being consumed in the process.

The grantor is free to revoke a life granted at any time before his death whether it is for a religious purpose or for an indeterminate period.

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