Supreme Court verdict: Now, daughter has equal rights in property

The Supreme Court clarified that the 2005 amendment to the Hindu Succession Act, which gave daughters an equal right of inheritance like that of sons, has a retrospective effect and will apply irrespective of whether the father was alive when the law was amended in 2005 or not.

Hyderabad: In a landmark judgement on Tuesday, the Supreme Court ruled that daughters of the Hindu Undivided Family (HUF) will have equal right in the ancestral property like that of sons, even if their father died before 2005 when the amendment to the Hindu Succession Act came into force.

In the 121-page judgement, a three-judge bench headed by Justice Arun Mishra said: “The daughter shall remain a coparcener throughout life, irrespective of whether her father is alive or not.”

The verdict stressed on the retrospective nature of the law and clarified that equal rights can also be claimed by daughters who were born before 9 September 2005 – the day when the amendments to the succession law came into force.

To understand the Supreme Court’s verdict better, take a glance into what the current law means.

What is HUF?

Under the Hindu law, a Hindu Undivided Family (HUF) is a group comprising more than one person, all lineal descendants of a common ancestor and includes wives and unmarried daughters. A HUF can be formed by people of Hindu, Jain, Sikh or Buddhist faith.

Who are coparceners?

Within the HUF, there are some coparceners. These are the people who have the capacity to assume a legal right in ancestral property by birth. Notably, coparcener heirs get right only by birth and no other contract. The only other method to be a coparcener is by way of adoption.

A coparcenary comprises the eldest member and three generations of a family. Before 2005, it included only those persons like sons, grandsons, and great­grandsons. A married daughter could not be a coparcener, even if she was the member of the HUF. But in 2005, the Act was amended to give every married daughter equal rights, liabilities, and duties as the sons.

What are the rights of a coparcener?

Besides legal right in ancestral property, coparceners can also can file a suit demanding partition of the ancestral property. The daughter, as a coparcener, can now demand the partition of her father’s property which was not allowed before 2005.

What is included in a coparcenary property?

Both ancestral and self-acquired property can be a coparcenary property. While in case of ancestral property, it is equally shared by all members of the coparcenary, in case of self-acquired, the person is free to manage the property according to his own will.

In case the father passes away without a will, the daughter has the same rights as the son in both ancestral and self-acquired property.

What was the 2005 amendment in the Hindu Succession Act?

Earlier, once a daughter was married, she ceased to be part of her father’s HUF and had no coparcenary rights. But on 9 September 2005, the Hindu Succession Act, 1956, was amended. According to the Hindu Succession Amendment Act, 2005, every daughter, whether married or unmarried, is considered a member of her father’s HUF and can even be appointed as ‘karta’ (the main manager) of his HUF property. The amendment grants daughters the same rights, duties, liabilities and disabilities that were earlier limited to sons.

It meant that the daughter would also be liable for the debts and losses in addition to property shares and other rights.

What does Supreme Court’s judgement on Tuesday say?

The 2005 amendment to the Hindu Succession Act applied only to cases where the father was alive on or after 9 September 2005. In case the father passed away prior to this date, regardless of the daughter being alive on this date, the daughter will not get the benefit of this amendment and will, therefore, have no rights over the ancestral property.

Also, a previous judgement by the apex court had created confusion on whether daughters born before 9 September 2005 could claim equal right in inheritance or not.

On Tuesday, the Supreme Court clarified that since the right in coparcenary is by birth, it is not necessary that father coparcener should be living as on 9 September 2005. Also, the rights can be claimed by the daughter born earlier with effect from 9 September 2005.

In which cases will the daughters’ coparcenary rights be curtailed?

In light of the 2005 amendment, the coparcenary right of the daughter can be curtailed only in case the property has been already disposed prior to 20 December 2004 -- a cut-off date provided in the Act.

This means that daughters will not be able to question disposal or alienation of ancestral properties by the existing coparceners done before 20 December 2004.

(ETV Bharat Report)