Author:
Publication: India Times
Date:
URL: http://203.199.70.246/examples/cityedn/viewcd.jsp?type=3&art_id=130746&CiI=1&CiN=Delhi
Setting at rest the long drawn controversy
over inheritance of the property belonging to a Hindu married woman who
dies intestate or issueless, the Supreme Court has ruled her husband or
father in law would have no claim over it if she had acquired such a estate
from her mother side.
In a ruling of utmost importance
to a large number of married Hindu women's rights in their parents' properties,
the Supreme Court said that such cases were covered by section 15(2) (a)
of the Hindu Succession Act, 1956. The provision relates to the rules of
succession in the case of female Hindus.
The relevant section envisages:
"any property inherited by a female Hindu from her father or mother shall
devolve, in the absence of any son or daughter of the deceased (including
the children of any pre- deceased son or daughter) not upon the other heirs
but upon the heirs of the father".
The term "other heirs" specified
in section 15(1)(a) of the Act says the property of a female Hindu dying
intestate shall devolve according to the rule specified in section 16 of
the Act. First, the property would devolve upon the sons and the daughters
(including the children of any pre-deceased son or daughter) and also the
husband ( her's ).
Thus, the court explained that
if a Hindu female inherited property from her father or mother, neither
her husband or his heirs would get such property but it would revert to
the heirs of her's father or mother.
The judgment is a fall out of a
30-year dispute over inheritance of some properties left by one Rajathiammal
who died intestate and issueless. She got the movable and immovable properties
from her maternal aunt's side as her own mother had died.
She inherited from her mother.
Her father Venugopal Chettiar's children or her own brothers through his
first and second marriages made claim on the properties left behind by
their married sister who died without leaving a will and issueless.
They lost before Cuddalore trial
court in Andhra Pradesh and later the high court. A Supreme Court Bench
of Justices M B Shah and Dr A R Lakshmanan however set aside the judgments
and held since Rajathiammal had inherited the property from her mother,
section 15(2) of the Act would be applicable in this case.
Therefore, the properties acquired
by her from her mother would go the heirs of her father and, therefore,
her sisters and brothers who are the sons and daughters of Chettiar would
be entitled to her estate.
The court said section 16 of the
Act "evolves a new and uniform order of succession of property (by a female
Hindu) and regulates the manner of its distribution".
Section 15(2) also carves out an
exception in cases of a female dying without leaving a will (intestate)
and issueless or children of a pre-deceased son or daughter. In such a
case, the rule prescribed is to find out the source from which she has
inherited the property.
If it is inherited from her father
or mother, the apex court explained, it would devolve under section 15(2)(a)
of the Hindu Succession Act. If it is inherited from her husband or father-in-law,
it would devolve upon the heirs of her husband as specified under section
15(2)(b).
The provision says that in a case
where the property is inherited by a female from her father or mother,
it would devolve upon the other heirs but of her father.
This would mean that if there is
no son or daughter including the children of any pre-deceased son or daughter,
then the property would devolve upon the heirs of her father, the court
said, adding: "The result would be, if property is inherited by a female
from her father or her mother, neither her husband or his heirs would get
such property, but it would revert back to the heirs of her father.
