Succession to the Property of a Hindu Female Dying Intestate

In one line

A Hindu woman's property goes first to her children and husband, then to her husband's heirs, then to her parents, then to her father's heirs, then to her mother's; except that property she inherited from her parents or from her husband's family goes back where it came from if she leaves no children.

Section 15(1): the general order

Section 15(1) provides that the property of a female Hindu dying intestate shall devolve according to the rules in section 16:

(a) firstly, upon the sons and daughters, including the children of any pre-deceased son or daughter, and the husband;

(b) secondly, upon the heirs of the husband;

(c) thirdly, upon the mother and father;

(d) fourthly, upon the heirs of the father; and

(e) lastly, upon the heirs of the mother.

Five entries, taken in order, and each reached only if the one before it is empty.

What is striking about that order

Her husband is in the first entry, with her children. He takes an equal share with them.

Her husband's heirs come second, before her own parents. So where a woman dies childless and a widow, her property goes to her late husband's relations before it goes to her own mother and father. That is the provision most often criticised, and the criticism is worth stating in an essay: her own parents, who may have given her everything she owns, rank behind her husband's family.

Her mother and father take together in the third entry, and equally, which is a small piece of equality the Act got right where section 8 did not: for a male intestate the mother is Class I and the father Class II.

Her father's heirs come before her mother's, in entries (d) and (e).

Section 15(2): the source rule

Section 15(2) provides that notwithstanding sub-section (1):

(a) any property inherited by a female Hindu from her father or mother shall devolve, in the absence of any son or daughter of the deceased, including the children of any pre-deceased son or daughter, not upon the heirs in the order of sub-section (1), but upon the heirs of the father; and

(b) any property inherited by a female Hindu from her husband or from her father-in-law shall devolve, in the absence of any son or daughter, including the children of any pre-deceased son or daughter, not upon the heirs in the order of sub-section (1), but upon the heirs of the husband.

The four conditions to check

Every problem on section 15(2) turns on the same four questions.

1. Was the property INHERITED? The sub-section applies only to property she inherited. Property she bought, earned, or received as a gift is not within it, and devolves under sub-section (1) however she came by it.