Womens rights - hindu succession act
Querist :
Anonymous
(Querist) 04 April 2018
This query is : Resolved
PART I
Thanks for lawyer’s learned opinion. Kindly clarify for my specific situation. Kindly keep in view the 1956 act, 1985 Andhra Paradesh amendment, 2005 Parliament amendment, 2016 justice Nariman judgement and 2018 justices Sikri & Bhushan judgement.
1. I am a married Hindu woman from Andhra Pradesh. My father had 2 children: a son (my brother) born in March 1954 and a daughter (me) born June 1956. My father was only son of his adopted parents. I was married in 1973, received no dowry and was living separately. My brother was married in 19735. In 1986 my father and brother partitioned the ancestral Property (AGRICULTURAL LAND situated in Andhra), 11 acres for my father and 14 acres for my brother. I was left out. I think this is against the 2015 NTR government amendment giving right to daughters. Later, my brother pledged father’s land fraudulently and it is gone. Brother’s property is safe. Brother drove away father and mother in 1998. They were living with me till the end. My brother died in 2002 without making a will, leaving behind his wife and 3 daughters ( born 1976, 1979, 1982). Father died 2014, mother died 2016. Both made wills in 2007 leaving “any property then owned or will get in future” to me. But, sister-in-law kept refusing to give share to my mother when she was alive, and later, to me..
I have two questions:
1. Am I entitled to a share, like my brother, in the ancestral property of my grandfather?
2. Do I have right to 1/5th share of my brother’s property, which my mother became entitled to when my brother died intestate, and my mother passed on to me by her 2007 will?
PART II
Kindly give your valuable opinion on the following concerning my matter.
My sister-in-law (my brother's widow) is refusing to give me 1/5th share. She is giving me the following 2 arguments:
1. She has partitioned my brother's land between her 3 daughters, registered them and obtained passbooks for their shares from revenue Department. So, there was no land left for my mother. And my mother cannot make a will of something she does not have. (I think this is not correct, my mother can pass on her share by will, even if she did not possess the land).
2. My mother's share is only 1/20th and not 1/5th. As per the 1985 Andhra Pradesh amendment (made by NT Rama Rao government), her 3 daughters get coparcenary rights along with their father by birth. On my brother's death intestate, my mother can only get 1/5th of his 1/4th, that is, 1/20th. (I understand this argument is not correct. since her 3 daughters were born before 1985, the AP amendment will not apply. Also the 2005 Parliament amendment will not apply since my brother died in 2002.
Ms.Usha Kapoor
(Expert) 19 April 2018
You will get equal share in your grand father's ancestral property according to SC ruling made recently by Supreme court-which days Daughters born before 2005 also would get equal share in coparcenary property (Ancestral Property)whether they are married or unmarried. You can file a partition suit against your sister in law.In the same suit you can agitate for your mother's 1/5 th share which rightfully belongs to her and later to you.
