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Administrator-General, Zanzibar, Administrator of Estate of Topan Karsan Ramji alias Rashid Karsan Ramji, Deceased v. Kulsam Fadhil Mussa and Five Others, Civ. Case 11A-Z-66, 7/2/67, Kimicha Ag. C. J.



Administrator-General, Zanzibar, Administrator of Estate of Topan Karsan Ramji alias Rashid Karsan Ramji, Deceased v. Kulsam Fadhil Mussa and Five Others, Civ. Case 11A-Z-66, 7/2/67, Kimicha Ag. C. J.

The parties, children of the deceased, claimed a piece of property formerly belonging to the deceased. The Administrator General is the plaintiff in form only, bringing the action in court for instruction on the question of which of the disputants should receive the property. Mohamed Hussein claims the property by way of a deed of gift, made to him by the deceased, his father, in 1960. The deed of gift was duly witnessed, but he deceased died without registering it as required by Zanzibar law. Mohamed’s sister argued that the gift was invalid for non-registration, and therefore that the property was properly part of the deceased’s estate, to be distributed among all the heirs. One Ahmed Juma testified that he had been a tenant on the property since 1960, that the deceased in 1960 told him that he had given the property to his son and that the rent should thenceforth be paid to the son, and that the had since that time paid the rent to the son who issued receipts in his own name. one of the witnesses to the deed of gift testified as to its genuineness. The parties were Muslims, members of the Shia sect.

Held: (1) The validity of gifts and the distribution of estates is governed by Muslim law, where the deceased was a Muslim.  “In civil matters the law of Islam is an hereby declared to be the fundamental law of the Republic,” under Cap. 3, s. 7.

            (2) Mulla’s Principles of Mohammedan Law, par. 150(3), states; “If it is proved by oral evidence that a gift was completed as required by law, it is immaterial that the donor has also executed a deed of gift, but the deed has not been registered as required by the Registration Act.”

            (3) According to Shia law, the requirements for a valid gift are: (a) a declaration of the gift by the donor; (b) an acceptance of the gift by the donee; and (c), a delivery of possession to the donee. Since these requirements complied with here, the gift was valid, and Mohamed Hussein is entitled to the property.

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