This paper brings published evidence together into an age-neutral, falsifiable test of the Inherited Lithospheric Weakness Hypothesis (ILWH) for accommodation in the Bengal Basin. Boreholes and mine records on the Stable Shelf document Paleoproterozoic basement domains and fault-bounded Permian depocentres, and geophysical and stratigraphic studies farther east and south constrain Cretaceous margin development and younger deformation. What is still missing is a continuous, independently dated inherited boundary linking northwestern Bangladesh to the Sylhet, Faridpur, or Hatia troughs. To close this gap, I propose four linked groups of tests: breakup kinematics, crustal and potential-field imaging, rheological predictions, and subsidence modelling. Candidate boundaries are mapped independently and then tested against a conventional model. That model includes spatially variable Cretaceous stretching and cooling, intraplate deformation predicted by revised India–Antarctica breakup kinematics, flexure, convergence, sediment loading, and magmatic modification; lower-crustal flow, density change, and dynamic topography are treated as separate alternatives. Restoration handles compaction, a single sediment-unloading step, paleowater depth, and isostatically amplified eustasy, so that no effect is counted twice. Spatially blocked validation across seismic, native gravity–magnetic, and well–stratigraphic data checks whether prediction really improves, and constrained lineament randomizations guard against chance association and multiple testing. Inheritance counts as contributory only if a pre-existing boundary, with plausible parameters, improves withheld predictions in a way that is geologically meaningful and spatially persistent. A Permian contribution also needs independent evidence of syndepositional faulting, pre-Cretaceous existence, and later mechanical linkage, and formative age is assessed separately. If the conventional model predicts adequately, an inherited contribution is unnecessary. If coverage, age control, or statistical power falls short, the question remains unresolved.
(Note: Abstract updated in Version 3.0)