Land right of a daughter

I know you are eagerly waiting for some legal expert but here are my two cents...

The law is on your side for sure but the will is against you. Unless you make the will non enforceable, you will not get your share is what I believe.... Now, I was talking to a lawyer friend of mine on this and he said that the will may not be enforceable since it is not directed at any specific individual and that it was made long ago when the law wasn't recognizing female as legitimate share holders..... Perhaps, you need a good ocnsultation with a good lawyer who can break that will for you.... Otherwise all aspects of the law is well settled in the above judgement....

Goodluck!!!

Thanks really. The will is directed to my brothers in unambiguous terms. Yes, it was made a long time back , and one of my brothers say he will not oppose to my claims to my share of the house, but my another brother may oppose. Girls from our community never ever ask for their claims so it is taken for granted that I too will not ask. I am as I said more interested in its theoretical aspects also, and want to show the community that this may happen, if girls want their share of the land. So let me know if a will is directed to particular persons can I still claim based on the plea that these laws were non existent at the time when the will was written and no one ever bothered to change it in favour of the girl children in consonance with the amended act.

RG 

Dear RG,

Like you I am also VERY interested in this case purely from a legal point of view and I am also a BIG supporters of girls right (no, I am not a woman). I grew up with my cousin sisters who were given no share while my cousin brothers took everything and enjoying all to themselves... thus I had this THING against such practices and have always been supportive of folks who come forward to fight.... In your case the only thing against u is the existence of the will and if one of your brother supports you then you have a much higher chance of success in this case.... In addition, while a person is entitled to write a will of his liking but there are two things against this will:

1. It is a gainst public policy i.e pure discrimination (since it is not directed at specific individuals by name)

2. The law has changed since then and thus including the girls to the "will' should not violate the spirit of the will as such (since I am sure the will doesn't say that the girls are excluded, correct me if this is not the case).

and thus there is a chance that a higher court (you may fail at the lower court) might favor you... I will encourage you to fight even if not for the property but for your right... you may still give back the property to your brothers if you like but that doesn't mean u give up your right....

I will do some research and see if I we can find some precedence on this will stuff (if we find one then it is a slam dunk).... I will let you know if couple of days...

BYW, which city are you in? I am in Hyderabad.

Is that will ever probated ? Mere having a document is not enough, the main thing is whether it is acted upon or not.

That is a good point. It is more than likely that it is not probated and nor a registered will as well. So RG has plenty of scope to contest the same if they try to probate now and it if is not registered will then that is also good..... I think RG should get a copy of the will thru his brother who is willing to support her or be neutral....

RG???

Thanks both for spending time to reply. 

I have come to know from the brother who is supporting me that it is explicitly transferred to him but with a rider that so long as my mother is alive the property would remain hers, but she was not given right to sale it, but after my mother is no more, the property would be owned by brother ( he was 3 years then) and any other male child who may be born later. There is no mention of girl children there, it is also not mentioned that girl children should not get the property. Later my second brother was born. I have an older sister and I am the youngest one. 

I have asked my brother to send a scanned copy of the will. I haven't even seen the will.

It makes me furious how girls entitlements are so grossly violated. My mom is still alive but my second brother was already asking division of the house. Till now nothing is divided. 

I was born and grew up in that house. I felt disgusted when they took for granted that the house is just thiers( of course now my older brother says he will support me if I make claims on it) . It is emotionally a heart shattering experience that you do not have a piece of land where we played and studied and grew up!

Thanks again for this support. 

RG

@ Mr. Ashutosh and Mr. Professional,

Ok I am just now told that it is a registered gift deed to my brother and his would be brother with the condition that the house would not be transferred to them till my mom is alive or something like that this deed would not take effect till my mom is alive. So now what is your take.

Dear RG,

First of all your feelings are understandable and hats off to you for the same. It is unfortuante that most girls/woman do not feel that way and never stand up for their right... But at the same time don't feel bad and pressure yourself unnecessarily... Take it as a fun exercise and I am sure you will pull thru, if not win at least you will make your point.... I spent sometime today looking for judgments and found foreign judgments to the effect if a will is made in violation of public policy then that clauses that are in violation are null and void....So, if it was a will we can make a good case (although we may have to use the common law for the same).... But it seems like your case is bit complicated based on what you are saying above...

WILL and GIFT deeds are two different instruments but your descripttion seem to imply that the gift deed has been made like a will. I do not think such a gift deed is valid. Your grandfa could have gifted to the grandchildren and made your mother as a quardian, but I don't think he can gift it to your mother and make conditions thereafter since the act of gift is over the moment your mother accepts it.....(that is my humble legal reading, others please correct me..) The best thing to do is to wait for the copy of the gift/will deed and read it first and regroup to discuss the same....

Also, if your brother is not giving you a copy then you can approach the registrar office to get a certified copy of the document.... simply file an application for EC for the last xx years covering the period of registration and you will get the document reference in the EC and use that to get a copy of the same... If it is in english then send me a copy or else translate the same and send me a copy.....

Yeah taking it as a fun exercise punctuated with healthy dose of constructive anger at the de facto status of women in our communities. Yes will see how I can get a copy of the document. I do not know when it was made, and I do not know how easier it would be for me to take out a copy of it officially. 

It is a gift deed made to a minor child to be shared by his would be brother. My mom read it recently and said it is written that till she is alive, it cant be divided, she has a right over it. Pretty confusing, isn't it? In fact it is not so much personal but a political concern for me: political in the larger sense of the term: women's strategic rights over land. I myself am a gender researcher and wish peep deeper into the legal VS. social land rights. If the laws are not applicable in retrorspect, they deprive a vast group of women from entitlements. As a strategies naturally everyone then would be writing gift deeds to male children! Who prevents. We are on the square one again in that case, aren't we?

Now I know where this is coming from:- ) kidding!!

The law is indeed retrospective with some restrictions to make it pragmatic (per the HC of Karnataka which i beleive is well reasoned). But at the same time is also legal and a right for an individual to dispose of his assets the way he/she likes it so long as it is not against the law and public policy. The law kicks in only when the individual hasn't expressed anything via will.

So, I think the parliament really fixed the law issue but they can't do much if people wanted to discriminate via will and gift deeds right?

Getting a copy of the registeered documents is easy... just follow the instructions I have given or give the information to some real estate brokers and they will get it for you for a fee...

Your descripttion is still confusing as it still sound like a will but you are saying it is a gift to a minor... We need to read the language of the deed to really assess as to what can be done... I would imagine, you grandfa could have gifted to your elder brother and made your mom as guardian but I don't think he could your brother(s) who were not born.... so if it is ideed a gift deed then it may be possible to get it nullified due to the way it has been drafted... I think there is a Gift Deed Act which I was not able to find on the internet...... I say just focus your energy in getting a copy of the document first....

If anyone knows where we can download a copy of the Gift Deed Act please post the link...