Mother died before Act passed,so no inheritance share for son: High Court

Legal heirs cannot claim a mothers share in her ancestral property is she died prior to enforcement of the Hindu Succession Act,2005 that gives equal right of succession to daughters,the Bombay High Court has ruled.

Legal heirs cannot claim a mother’s share in her ancestral property is she died prior to enforcement of the Hindu Succession (Amendment) Act,2005 that gives equal right of succession to daughters,the Bombay High Court has ruled. In the important ruling,the court recently held that equal rights of succession to daughters under the amended legislation cannot be applied retrospectively to daughters who expired before the Act was enforced.

Hearing a case pertaining to petitioner Chandrakant Desale,who claimed his late mother’s share in his maternal grandfather’s property in Thane,Justice Roshan Dalvi observed that section 6 of the Act that speaks of devolution of interest does not say that it would apply to all females retrospectively,including a daughter who had expired prior to the coparcener himself,prior to any litigation and prior to the amendment Act itself.

“If such a daughter was also to be included the entire population would come to be included and the children and grandchildren of all deceased females would claim their share in the estate of their grandparents and great grandparents through their mother. It would have to be seen whether the legislation is capable of such an absurd interpretation,” Justice Dalvi observed.

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Desale’s grandfather Sakharam Patil had two daughters,Narmadabai and Desale’s mother Muktabai,and son Sadashiv. Narmadabai and Muktabail died on 1987 and 1978 respectively while Patil died on October 4,1995. Since Patil had died without a will,his natural successor was Sadashiv who was the only one of his children alive at the time.

Sadashiv’s counsel AA Kumbhakoni argued that the words in the subtitle of section 6 “devolution of interest” show that for an interest to devolve upon a person,the person must be alive.

The court observed that if Muktabai and Narmadabai were alive at the time of their father’s death,they would have,under the Act of 2005,the same right of inheritance as their brother Sadashiv. The court,however,observed,“No devolution of interest in coparcenery property can take place upon a deceased coparcener. On the date of the death of Sakharam his daughters were not even coparceners; they were not even alive.”

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Bombay High Court

Mother died before Act passed,so no inheritance share for son: High Court

Legal heirs cannot claim a mothers share in her ancestral property is she died prior to enforcement of the Hindu Succession Act,2005 that gives equal right of succession to daughters,the Bombay High Court has ruled.

Legal heirs cannot claim a mothers share in her ancestral property is she died prior to enforcement of the Hindu Succession Act,2005 that gives equal right of succession to daughters,the Bombay High Court has ruled.