Supreme Court rules that Daughters have equal birthright to inherit property

Amended Hindu Succession Act gives daughters equal rights to ancestral property

• A three-judge bench headed by Justice Arun Mishra of Supreme Court ruled
  that daughters have equal rights as that of sons on parental property
• They shall remain coparcener throughout their life and will have a retrospective
  effect
• The court decided that the amended Hindu Succession Act, which gives
  daughters equal rights to ancestral property

Highlights of the Judgment

• The judgment said that the daughters have equal rights in parental property as
  that of son
• This includes in cases where the father died before the enactment of Hindu
  Succession (Amendment) Act, 2005
• The Judgment also said that the according to Section 6 of the Hindu
  Succession Act, 1956, the status of coparcener on the daughter born before or
  after amendment in the same manner as that of the son
• The court, in its 121-page judgment, said the statutory fiction of partition
  created by proviso to Section 6 of the Hindu Succession Act, 1956 as originally
  enacted did not bring about the actual partition or disruption of coparcenaries
• It also clarified that an unregistered oral partition, without any
  contemporaneous public document, cannot be accepted as the statutory
  recognized mode of partition
• However, in exceptional cases where plea of oral partition is supported by
  public documents and partition is finally evinced in the same manner as if it
  had been affected by a decree of a court, it may be accepted
• The court said disputes pending on this question in various courts should be
  decided within the next six months

Conflict of Hindu Succession Act, 1956

• Till 2005, the Hindu Succession Act, 1956 was biased against women
• Only after the amendment in the act, equal rights were awarded to daughters in
  their fathers’ ancestral property
• Under the act, the Hindu women can inherit all types of property
• This includes both movable and immovable property
• There are two ways a woman can inherit property under the law
• If someone leaves a property through Will. This is called Inheritance through
  Will
• When there is no will, then the inheritance is achieved through Succession
• The act codifies laws related to intestate or unwilled succession among
  Buddhists, Hindus, Jains and Sikhs
• It provides a uniform and comprehensive system of inheritance and succession
• It was amended in 2005. Under the amendment, Section 6 was inserted

Key points of the act

• Daughters have same rights to inherit their mother’s property as that of their
  son. They inherit equally
• The rights of a widow is same as that of a married woman to acquire property
• If a woman is divorced, she is not included under Class I heir of her husband
• Class I heir of a Hindu male are mothers, daughters, widows and sons
• A mother inheriting from her son does not change based on whether she is
  widow, remarried or divorced

Pic courtesy : timesofindia.indiatimes.com