What are the Property rights of daughters and daughters-in-law in India

In a recent decision, the Supreme Court (SC) upheld the daughter’s property rights to demand an equal share, regardless of the year of their parent’s passing. The Prime Minister, Shri Narendra Modi, praised the efforts and emphasized the daughter’s property rights. Read more to know about his perspective on the subject and the property rights of daughters and daughters-in-law.

Latest News: In a speech recently, Prime Minister (PM) Shri Narendra Modi praised the decision to give daughters an equal share of their parents’ property. Despite an amendment to the Hindu Succession Act in 2005, the PM stated that mothers, daughters, sisters, and other females of a household must be able to claim property. Prior to September 9, 2005, daughters could only be entitled to an equal share of an ancestral property if their parents passed away after that date. Daughters now have the right to inherit property without regard to the decedent’s year of death, according to a new Supreme Court (SC) ruling.

There have been numerous reports of daughters and daughters-in-law being denied property rights in India. According to the Hindu Succession (Amendment) Act of 2005, women of the household are entitled to an equal share of the property just like men. This Act has been amended as a result of a recent Supreme Court of India decision. Regardless of when the parents passed away, the daughters can now enjoy equal rights to the ancestral property of their parents. However, it is crucial to remember that the daughter and the daughter-in-law may receive substantially different shares of the transferred property.

What is the recent Supreme Court decision on property rights?

Daughters could only claim their share under the Hindu Succession (Amendment) Act, 2005 if the father passed away after September 9, 2005. However, the recent Supreme Court (SC) ruling has made it abundantly clear that the daughters have equal rights to their father’s ancestral property, regardless of the year of their father’s passing.

According to the SC, if the daughter passes away while her father is still alive, her children may inherit their mother’s portion of the grandfather’s ancestral property. The father decides to give the property to whoever he wants out of his free will in case of his self acquired property. However, if the father passes away without making a will, his property will be distributed equally among his legal heirs, including his daughters.

Amendments made to the Hindu Succession Act, 1956

Daughters were given equal rights as co-heirs to inherit property under the 2005 revisions to the Hindu Succession Act. The amendment was implemented the day it was announced, but cases from before 2005 were not taken into account, so there was some ambiguity in the situation. To set the record straight on this, the Supreme Court (SC) ruled in a similar landmark decision on August 11, 2020, that daughters have the same rights as co-heirs under the Hindu Succession Act, regardless of when the amendment took effect. According to the Apex Court, a daughter acquires her coparcenary rights at birth. As a result, even if the father was not alive when the 2005 amendments were made, the Act’s regulations still hold true. Additionally, the daughter’s rights to coparcenary property are unaffected by her marriage.

What does the Hindu Succession Act, 1956 state about the ancestral property?

A daughter in a Hindu Undivided Family (HUF) is given the status of a “coparcener” under Section 6 (1) of the Hindu Succession Act, 1956, in accordance with its 2005 amendment. The term “coparcener” is defined by the Black Law Dictionary as a person who jointly descends an estate and holds it as an entire estate, or a person who has acquired concurrent ownership as a result of descent. As a result, a daughter who is a coparcener from birth has equal property rights in a HUF property. Regardless of her marital status, the daughter is still a co-owner of the HUF property and has the right to request its division. According to Advocate Sudhir Reddy, the founding lawyer of Reddy and Reddy Law Firm, “The daughter will also be held accountable for the same debts as a son, regardless of her marital status (married, single, or widow)”.

The deceased daughter’s children will be entitled to the share that she would have received if she had been alive on the date of the partition. If none of her children are still alive when the property is divided, her grandchildren will be eligible to inherit her share.

Property rights of a daughter as a co-owner 

A person who shares an inheritance with others is known as a coparcener. Daughters are coparceners, so they have the following property rights in an inherited property: 

• Birthright ownership of HUF property
• Partitioning on demand in a HUF property
• Become a Karta if she is the oldest couple.
• Right to intestate succession to her legal heirs of her share of the HUF property

Property rights of a daughter-in-law

A daughter-in-law is given the status of a HUF member but is not made a coparcener by the HUF. The daughter-in-law acquires rights to HUF property through her husband’s share in the HUF property (either willfully transferred by the husband or received after the demise of the husband). 

The daughter-in-law has no rights to the property that belongs solely to her in-laws, and such property is not considered shared property. The deceased mother-in-law’s share will be divided equally among her children in this case, and the daughter-in-law will only be given rights to her husband’s share. 

Property rights of the daughter regarding self-acquired property

“A son or daughter has no birthright to a property that a father or mother has self-acquired. According to the Rules of Hindu Succession Act, 1956, the daughter is covered as a Class I heir and has an equal right with the son(s) and other legal heirs if the father or mother dies intestate.

Property rights of the daughter-in-law regarding self-acquired property?

Daughters-in-law do not have right over the self-acquired property of her in-laws. She acquires right over her in-laws’ property only through the share of her husband in the same.

Daughters has now equal rights and shares in the property because the inheritence and succession law in India have been modified over the time. As a result. As a result, the daughter’s claim to both coparcenary and independently acquired property is legitimate and unchallengeable in any Indian court. The daughters-in-law only receive a share of the property through their husbands; they have no legal claim to the property that their in-laws have acquired on their own.

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