Mohamed Haniffa Mohamed Anwar et al. v. Abdul Samathu et al. – CA CASE NO. 987/1998-1998

In the case between Mohamed Haniffa Mohamed Anwar, Mohamed Haniffa Mohamed Iqbal, Abdul Lathif Ziard (Plaintiffs) and Abdul Samathu, Hathijambu (Defendants), the principal legal issue concerned whether the Defendants occupied the disputed property by virtue of a valid prescriptive title under Section 3 of the Prescription Ordinance or merely held the property by permission (leave and licence) from the Plaintiffs’ mother, the prior owner. It was held that the Defendants’ possession of the premises remained permissive, never attaining the character of adverse possession required for prescriptive title. The judgment reaffirmed that permissive possession cannot ripen into prescriptive title without unequivocal evidence of adverse intent and conduct. Reliance was placed on established case law