Daughters born after 1956 have equal inheritance rights as those of sons: SC

Daughters born after 1956 have equal inheritance rights as those of sons: SC

But Can’t Question Property Disposal Before 2004

Dhananjay.Mahapatra@timesgroup.com

New Delhi:12.08.2020 

Putting the last nail on male primacy in division of Hindu ancestral property, the Supreme Court in a landmark judgment on Tuesday cleared the legal cobwebs to declare that daughters will have inheritance rights equal to those of sons from properties of fathers, grandfathers and great-grandfathers right from the codification of the law in 1956.

A bench of Justices Arun Mishra, S Abdul Nazeer and M R Shah ironed out the confusion arising from the SC’s conflicting interpretations of the amended Section 6 of Hindu Succession Act, which came into force from September 9, 2005. The bench said whether the father was alive or not, daughters born before September 9, 2005, too could claim equal right in inheritance. The three-judge bench also examined the retrospective application of Section 6 and ruled that daughters would get the rights from 1956 when the law came into being.

TN parties hail apex court order

TN parties cutting across political lines welcomed the SC order. While chief minister Edappadi K Palaniswami and deputy CM O Panneerselvam said the order will safeguard social justice, DMK chief M K Stalin called it a victory for his party. “Kalaignar (M Karunanidhi) introduced the law granting equal rights over ancestral properties to daughters on a par with sons in 1989,” he said. P 5

‘Rights of other relatives remain unaffected’

Justice Mishra in the 121-page judgment said, “The provisions contained in substituted Section 6 of the Hindu Succession Act, 1956, confer status of coparcener (equal rights in inheritance) on the daughter born before or after amendment in the same manner as son with same rights and liabilities. The rights can be claimed by the daughter born earlier with effect from September 9, 2005,” .

However, daughters, while claiming coparcenary rights, will not be able to question disposal or alienation of ancestral properties by the existing coparceners prior to December 20, 2004, as provided in the amended Section 6. The court also asked other coparceners in a Hindu joint family not to be alarmed by the judgment.

“It is only a case of enlargement of the rights of daughters. The rights of other relatives remain unaffected as prevailed in the proviso to Section 6 as it stood before the amendment,” the SC said.

The three-judge bench also examined the retrospective application of Section 6 and ruled that daughters would get the rights from 1956 when the law came into being. However, it clarified that the newly-conferred rights through the judicial interpretations would not be available to reopen alienation of ancestral property done so earlier through existing coparceners.

Coparcenary property is one which is inherited by a Hindu from his/her father, grandfather or great-grandfather. Only a coparcener has the right to demand partition of property. Share in a property increases or decreases by death or birth in a family.