KOCHI: The Kerala High Court has held that the daughter of a person from Hindu community, who passed away after December 2004 in the state, is entitled to an equal share in the ancestral property.
The court also ruled that Sections 3 and 4 of the Kerala Joint Hindu Family System (Abolition) Act 1975, which deny such rights, are contrary to Section 6 of the Hindu Succession (Amendment) Act 2005 and therefore cannot prevail.
Section 3 of the former Act states that no person can claim birthright in ancestral property, while Section 4 declares that a Hindu Undivided Family (HUF) in Kerala is deemed to have been partitioned and converted into a tenancy-in-common. Section 6 of the Hindu Succession (Amendment) Act 2005 says that a daughter by birth becomes a coparcener in her own right in the same manner as a son.
The court made it clear that the State Act prevents any person from claiming a right by birth. But the Central legislation enables a daughter to claim such a right.
The court issued its order based on a petition filed by N P Rajani and her three sisters from Kozhikode, who sought their rightful share in the HUF property after their father died in 2005. Their brother, citing a will executed by the father in his favour argued that her claim was barred by the 1975 Kerala Joint Hindu Family System (Abolition) Act, which abolished the joint family system in the state.
Advocate Nirmal S, counsel for the petitioners, argued that after the Hindu Succession (Amendment) Act, 2005, the petitioners being the daughters of the deceased person are also entitled to equal share in the property. He argued that the Kerala Joint Hindu Family System (Abolition) Act, 1975 no longer survived in the light of the amendment caused by Act 39 of 2005.
Justice Easwaran S also quoted a verse in ‘Skanda Purana’ that “One daughter is equal to ten sons. Whatever ‘phala’ (merits, good results) a person attains by siring and upbringing ten sons, the same ‘phala’ is attained by begetting a single daughter.” The statement, however, does not always stand as a true reflection of a daughter’s right when it comes to the right of inheritance to her father’s property, said the court.
The judgment which opened with a verse that likened daughters to Lakshmi, the goddess of wealth and prosperity, also reaffirmed that the father could not bequeath the entire ancestral property to one heir, as the law mandated equal shares among all legal heirs, including daughters.