Can a Hindu woman married in 1998 ask for her share in father's ancestral property under H.S.Act 2005?

Question

- Example - Any recent Indian Court decision
- Details of Hindu Succession Act 2005 for property share in respect of married daughter

Answer 1

Yes a Hindu woman married in 1998 can ask for her share in father’s ancestral property even under the Hindu Succession Act, 1955. Section 6 of the said Act clearly provides: Devolution of interest of coparcenary property. - When a male Hindu dies after the commencement of this Act, having at the time of his death an interest in a Mitakshara coparcenary property, his interest in the property shall devolve by survivorship upon the surviving members of the coparcenary and not in accordance with this Act.

Provided that, if the deceased had left him surviving a female relative specified in class 1 of the Schedule or a male relative specified in that class who claims through such female relative, the interest of the deceased in the Mitakshara coparcenary property shall devolve by testamentary or intestate succession, as the case may be, under this Act and not by survivorship.

Explanation 1.- For the purposes of this section, the interest of a Hindu Mitakshara coparcener shall be deemed to be the share in the property that would have been allotted to him if a partition of the property had taken place immediately before his death, irrespective of whether he was entitled to claim partition or not.

Explanation 2. - Nothing contained in the proviso to this section shall be construed as enabling a person who has separated himself from the coparcenary before the death of the deceased or any of his heirs to claim on intestacy a share in the interest referred to therein.

In this case (Mitakshara)such a female is the legal heir specified in class 1 of the Schedule as a daughter & hence the provision of the Hindu Succession Act will apply in the distribution of such an ancestral property as given in the above mentioned proviso. Recent Supreme Court Judgement with regards to this, you can go through is Civil Appeal no 4171 of 2006 Anar Devi and Ors V/s Parmeshwari Devi and Ors dated 18/09/2006. With the amendment of section 6 of the above mentioned Act, in 2005 the daughter of a coparcener shall,-(a) by birth become a coparcener in her own right in the same manner as the son;(b) have the same rights in the coparcenary property as she would have had if she had been a son;(c) be subject to the same liabilities in respect of the said coparcenary property as that of a son,and any reference to a Hindu Mitakshara coparcener shall be deemed to include a reference to a daughter of a coparcener. The benefit of bringing this change is to ,-(a) the daughter is allotted the same share as is allotted to a son;(b) the share of the pre-deceased son or a pre-deceased daughter, as they would have got had they been alive at the time of partition, shall be allotted to the surviving child of such pre-deceased son or of such pre-deceased daughter; and(c) the share of the pre-deceased child of a pre-deceased son or of a pre-deceased daughter, as such child would have got had he or she been alive at the time of the partition, shall be allotted to the child of such pre-deceased child of the pre-deceased son or a pre-deceased daughter, as the case may be.

Answer 2

The amendement to Hindu law was brought first in the A.P., by the then Cheif Minister N.T. Rama Rao,thourgh which daughters are also given equal right along with sons. Later I learnt that Cnetral Govt also followed the same, so that it applies to all Hindus, entire Inida. I do not remember from which year it came into force. I am doubtful whether the amendemnt applies to a Hindu woman married in the year 1980.

Answer 3

No.
Hindu women are the most deprived persons in every sense in Indian law. How can property be an exception?
The laws mare made, but see the amount of loopholes!