Daughters right to inherit Ancestral Property

The Supreme Court said recently that a daughter cannot fight for her right to inherit ancestral property if the death of her father occurred before the amendment of Hindu law which came into force in 2005.

In the year 2005, the Supreme Court passed an amendment of the Hindu succession Act of 1956. The amendment granted daughters the right to inherit ancestral property along with their male relatives. Now, the Supreme Court had added a ‘small’ clause to it.

According to the clause, the daughter can hold the right to property only in case the father had died after the amendment of the came into force in 2005. In other words, the daughter can be the co-sharer of her father’s property with her male siblings, only in case the father is alive till 9th September 2005.

In addition to this the Supreme Court said that the amended provisions of the Hindu Succession (Amendment) Act, 2005, do not have a retrospective effect. A Supreme Court bench comprising Justices Anil R Dave and Adarsh K Goel held that the date of a daughter becoming coparcener is on and from the commencement of the Act.

The right to inherit ancestral property by women was denied by the Hindu Succession Act of 1956 allowing them only to ask the sustenance from joint Hindu family.

After the amendment of the Hindu Succession Act, 1956 in 2005, the only restriction of women was that they could not ask for a share in their father’s property if the property had been partitioned or alienated before December 20, 2004, which is the date the Bill was introduced. This was the constraint on women’s right to their father’s property until the Supreme Court came up with the latest restriction.