The Bombay High Court, while hearing a case pending since 2007, has ruled that daughters have no right over their father’s property if the father died before the implementation of the Hindu Succession Act in 1956.
Property Rights: The Bombay High Court on Wednesday ruled that daughters have no right over their father’s property if the father died before the implementation of the Hindu Succession Act, 1956. A bench of Justices AS Chandurkar and Jitendra Jain gave this verdict in a case pending since 2007. The court said that since the person died before the implementation of the 1956 Act, his property was distributed according to the laws prevailing at the time of his death and daughters were not recognized as heirs at that time.
It is noteworthy that Yashwantrao of Mumbai died in 1952. He was survived by two wives and three daughters. After the death of his first wife Lakshmibai in 1930, Yashwantrao remarried Bhikubai from whom he had a daughter Champubai. A few years later, his daughter from his first marriage, Radhabai, filed a suit demanding division of the property, claiming half of her father’s property. A trial court rejected her claim. The court had said that the property was inherited only by Bhikubai under the Hindu Women’s Property Rights Act 1937 and she became its heir in 1956 under the Hindu Succession Act.
The Bombay High Court stressed the need to consider succession rights in the context of laws prior to 1956. “We had to go back in time to decide whether a daughter whose mother is a widow and has no other relatives would have any succession rights before 1956,” the bench said. The court said that the Hindu Women’s Property Rights Act, 1937 does not provide succession rights to daughters as it clearly mentions only sons. The court also held that if the law had intended to include daughters, it would have done so clearly. The bench said that the Hindu Succession Act of 1956, which includes daughters as first class heirs, is not applicable retrospectively.
