Property rights of daughters and daughters-in-law in India
The Hindu Succession Act was amended in 2005, and as a result, daughters were granted the same rights as coparceners. However, there has been uncertainty over the count because the modification became effective as of the day of the announcement and is no longer taken into account for incidents occurring before 2005. To put this to rest, the Supreme Court (SC) ruled in a historic decision on August 11, 2020, that daughters had the same rights as coheirs under the Hindu Succession Act, regardless of when the transition occurred. According to the Supreme Court, a daughter acquires her coparcenary rights through birth.
As a result, even if the father is no longer living at the time of revisions made in 2005, the restrictions under the Act are still in effect. Additionally, the daughter’s rights to coparcenary property are no longer affected by her marriage.
The Hindu Succession Act, 1956 was amended in 2005, and Section 6 (1) of the Act grants daughters the status as “coparceners” in Hindu Undivided Families (HUF). According to the Black Law Dictionary, a “coparcener” is someone who jointly inherits a piece of property and possesses it as a whole, i.e., someone who has become a concurrent owner as a result of descent. As a result, a daughter inherits the same property rights in a HUF asset at birth as a co-owner. Regardless of her marital status, the daughter continues to be a coparcener and has the right to request a division of the HUF assets.
In addition, regardless of her marital status (married, single, or widow), the daughter would have the same responsibilities as those of a son, asserts Advocate Sudhir Reddy, Founding Partner of Reddy & Reddy Law Firm. The children of the deceased daughter will be entitled to the share that she would have gotten if she had been living on the day of the divorce. If none of her children are still living on the day of the divorce, her grandchildren may be entitled to inherit her share.
On the other hand, HUF grants a daughter-in-law the status of a member but does not convert her into a coparcener. The daughter-in-law gains rights to the HUF assets through her husband’s share of the HUF assets (both wilfully transferred via way of means of the husband or acquired after the loss of life of the husband). The daughter-in-law cannot claim any rights to property that is solely her in-laws’, and such property is no longer to be treated as a joint possession. When a mother-in-law passes away, her share will also be divided among her children, and the daughter-in-law will only be able to claim rights to her husband’s share.
Their boy or girl has no birthright to any of their parent’s self-obtained possessions. According to the Rules of Hindu Succession Act, 1956, if the father or mother dies intestate, the devolution of the property takes place as per the Rules of Hindu Succession Act, under which the daughter has covered as a Class I inheritor and has an identical right in conjunction with the son(s) and other prison heirs.
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