Daughters to get preference in parents' property:Supreme Court

The daughters of a male Hindu, who dies without writing a will, would be entitled to inherit the self-acquired and other properties of the father and get preference over other collateral members of the family in the absence of any other legal heir, the Supreme Court (SC) ruled on Thursday. “If a property of a male Hindu dying intestate (without a will) is a self-acquired property or obtained in the partition of a coparcenary or a family property, the same would devolve by inheritance and not by survivorship, and a daughter of such a male Hindu would be entitled to inherit the property in preference to other collaterals (such as sons/daughters of brothers of deceased father),” a Bench led by Justice S Abdul Nazeer and Justice Krishna Murari said.“The basic aim of the legislature in enacting Section 15(2) (of the Hindu Succession Act) is to ensure that inherited property of a female Hindu dying issueless and intestate, goes back to the source,” it said.

The verdict came on a petition challenging a Madras High Court verdict on property rights of Hindu women and widows under the Hindu Succession Act, particularly, the right of the daughter to inherit the self-acquired property of her father, in the absence of any other legal heir. In case a female Hindu dies without leaving a will, the court said, the property she inherited from her father or mother would go to the heirs of her father while the property she inherited from her husband or father-in-law would go to the heirs of the husband. The top court said, “...since the property in question was admittedly the self-acquired property of a father despite the family being in a state of jointness upon his death intestate, his sole surviving daughter will inherit the same by inheritance and the property shall not devolve by survivorship.