Daughters to inherit father’s property in the absence of a will, rules SC

The Supreme Court recently ruled that daughters are entitled to inherit their father’s self-acquired property. The daughters of a Hindu male who dies without a will or intestate will inherit the father’s property, according to the Court. In such cases, daughters will be prioritised over other family members such as the father’s siblings’ sons and daughters.

“If an estate of a male Hindu dying without a will  is a self-acquired property or acquired in the separation of a law of succession or a family property, the same would regress by inheritance and not by survival rates, and a daughter of such a male Hindu would indeed be entitled to inherit such property in preference to other collaterals (such as sons/daughters of deceased father’s brothers),” the court stated.

This decision sheds light on the 1956 Hindu Succession Act (HSA). In September 2005, the Hindu Succession Act of 1956 was amended, and women were recognised as joint owners or coparceners of property.

According to the court, Ramasamy Gounder’s daughter, as Class-I heirs of their father, shall also be the heirs and entitled to a share in the suit properties under the Hindu Succession Act 1956.

It also shed light on a provision of the act that states that the inherited property of a Hindu female who dies intestate or without a will is returned to the source.

“If a female Hindu drops dead without a will without having left any problem, the property hereditary from her father or mother would go to her father’s successors, whereas the estate inherited from her husband or father-in-law would go to the husband’s successors,” the court noted.

“If a female Hindu dies intestate without leaving any issue, the property inherited from her father or mother would go to the heirs of her father, whereas the property inherited from her husband or father-in-law would go to the heirs of the husband,” the court stated.

The Supreme Court’s bench of Justices S Abdul Nazeer and Krishna Murari ruled that after the father’s death, the property would pass through inheritance rather than survivorship.

“The purpose of the act is to develop full equality between male and female property rights, and the women’s rights were declared absolute, eradicating all notions of a limited estate.” As according reports, “the Act changed the law of succession among Hindus and granted rights that were previously unknown in relation to women’s estate,” the Court stated.