Daughters In Hindu Family Get Coparcenary Rights; Know What SC Said In Its Judgement?

by Shatakshi Gupta

Sons often change after marriage, but the bonding of parents to daughters increases each day.  There is some truth in this.  Justice Arun Mishra, the head of the three-member bench, reiterated that ‘a son is a son till he gets a wife, but the daughter remains a daughter for life.’ In his statement, it is clear that daughters have a lifetime affection towards their parents also, daughters are more emotionally attached to their parents than sons.

supreme court

 In the recent judgment, the Supreme Court emphasized that the daughter’s right to the father’s ancestral property is no less than her brother.  The Supreme Court has said in the judgment that by amending the Hindu Succession Act 1956 in 2005, the system of giving equal rights in ancestral property or Coparcenary rights to daughters is applicable to those daughters who were born before 2005.  For daughters born after 2005, this decision was applicable already. The daughter’s share in parental property cannot be denied on the grounds that she was born before the 2005 law.

Also read: Supreme Court Has Given Permission to File Writ Pleas Against Central Vista Project’s Environmental Clearance

SC Rejected its own 2015 judgement

With this new decision, the Supreme Court rejected its decision of 2015. Which states that the rights under the amendment to the Hindu Succession Act 2005 were applicable to the surviving daughters of the surviving shareholder of the property till 9 September 2005. There were many appeals against this Supreme Court decision of 2015.  It is now clear that even if the father has died before the Hindu Succession (Amendment) Act, 2005, daughters will still have the right over the parents’ property.

This law of the right to an equal share of daughters was passed in 2005.  The daughters have equal rights in the father’s property, but the coparcenary is associated with the family business and the Hindu undivided family property.  For instance, a person has two daughters and has died and that person has a coparcenary with his brothers. If his brother has two sons, then these sons get the right from birth i.e. the participation of two brothers was the participation of four men, but the daughters of this person did not get the rights in the collegium.  These girls used to get a quarter of their father’s share and this quarter was further divided into two halves between daughters.  This was the law, but now the court has said that this fiction will not be created.  Girls will also get equal rights in the custody of the father’s property. The Supreme Court has given a big decision in favour of daughters.  The court has said that daughters have as much right to the ancestral property of the joint Hindu family as sons.  With birth, the daughter is entitled to equal in the father’s property.  That is, if the daughter now wants, she can claim her share in the ancestral property

 The decision will reduce the pendency of title suits           

 The bench of the Supreme Court said that many appeals regarding the rights in the ancestral property of daughters are pending in various High Court and Subordinate Courts.  Now as there is no legal confusion on this issue, an appeal is made to various courts to decide the pending cases as soon as possible within 6 months.