Heirs Of Woman's Father Can Inherit Property: Supreme Court

Property inheritance: The Supreme Court ruled that heirs of a woman's father can inherit property under the Hindu Succession Act and that they cannot be said "strangers".

Justice Ashok Bhushan and R Subhash headed a bench that referred Section 15 (1)(d) of the Hindu Succession Act and said that the heirs of a Hindu woman's parental side are covered under persons entitled to the succession of the property. The bench said, "A perusal of Section 15(1)(d) indicates that heirs of the father are covered in the heirs who could succeed. When heirs of the father of a female are included as person who can possibly succeed, it cannot be held that they are strangers and not the members of the family qua the female."

The court said that the term "family" has to be understood in a wider sense where apart from legal heirs and close relatives, "persons who may have some sort of antecedent title, a semblance of a claim or even if they have a spec successionis" meaning chance of succession after death a family member.

The ruling came in a case where a woman named Jagno inherited the property of her late husband and transferred it to her brothers' sons. Jagno's brother-in-laws contested the same. The Supreme Court ruled the Jagno being her husband's widow is the absolute owner and that she can transfer it to her paternal side relatives. " We, thus, do not find any merit in the submission of counsel for the appellants that the defendants-respondents were strangers to the family," the court said and rejected the appeal of Jagno's brother-in-law's descendants.