@ Ld. brother Bharat,
1. A step-mother can claim maint.
Re.: Kirthikant D. Vadodaria Vs. State of Gujarat and anr. 1996 (4) SCC 479
2. Adoptive mother can claim maint.
Re.: Baban Alias Madhav Dagadu Dange Vs Parvatibhai Dagadu Dange
1978 CriLJ 1436
3. I partly agree to your advise and needs discussion from your side as I think a step-mother is not entitled to get property of her son or her daughter; however she can be an heir as father’s widow under Entry VI of Class II. However property earned by a woman exclusively is Stridhan and Will devolve upon her heirs. In other words where property was inherited by a lady from her parent(s), it shall not pass to her husband or to her husband’s heir where she dies without children or children of predeceased children. Any property possessed by a female Hindu shall be held by her as full owner thereof and not as a limited owner (S. 14). Illegitimate daughter cannot claim heirship as per S. 15 of the Act. Further ‘step son’ and ‘step daughter’ are not included in the term ‘son’ or ‘daughter’ in S. 15 (1) and accordingly are not entitled to share in property.
By the 2005 Amendment Act, four categories of heirs which were hitherto placed in Class II were elevated to Class I heirs namely (i) Daughter’s son’s son, (ii) Daughter’s daughter’s daughter; (iii) Daughter’s son’s daughter; and (iv) Son’s daughter’s daughter. While adding these categories to Class I, the corresponding entries in Class II were not deleted. Thus there is overlapping between Class I and Class II schedule.
The Law Commission of India in its 204th Report on the Hindu Succession Act, 1956 has suggested to the Government that that father should be placed along with mother in Class I and both together should take one share. The Commission has also suggested revision of Class I heirs as in the opinion of the Commission, Class I heirs list in the Schedule is complex and cumbersome and is not amenable to easy understanding.
