Ancestral property is one that the owner receives from his ancestors, as opposed to a property that the owner self-acquired with his resources.
The fact that a self-acquired property eventually turns into an inherited property makes defining the boundary between the two types of properties difficult. Ancestral property can also change into a self-acquired property, which is also true. Hindus believe that when ancestral property is divided among their joint families, each family member has self-acquired property. The self-acquired and undivided assets of a person’s great-great-grandfather also ultimately become ancestral assets.
Laws for Ancestral property
- Property that is passed down from one to four generations is referred to as ancestral property like from my dad to my great, great, great, grandfather.
- The claim to the ancestral property is thought to begin with birth rather than with the owner’s passing.
- The claim to the ancestral property is thought to begin with birth rather than with the owner’s passing.
- The partition of the property is done according to stripe rather than per capita. The share of each generation is first calculated. Subdivision is completed later for the subsequent generations. Additionally, every generation does inherit from the one before it.
- The term “ancestral properties” excludes properties based on wills and gifts.
- Gifts from fathers to sons are not counted as ancestral possessions.
- Ancestral properties might include self-acquired property if it is utilized frequently.
- However, the son still retains rights to the ancestral property if the father decides to disinherit him from a self-acquired property within it.
- Before 2005, only sons were entitled to inherit property. However, the Supreme Court changed the legislation in 2005 to grant daughters rights to inherit property, whether or not they are married. The daughter has no claim to inherit property, the court subsequently explained, if the father passed away before the 2005 modification to the Hindu law.
Following marriage, are daughters eligible to inherit their father’s property?
After the Hindu Succession Amendment was modified in 2005, the daughter was granted equal property rights. Sons had access to their late father’s property before the Hindu Succession Amendment Act of 2005, whereas daughters could only do so while they were still single. It was accepted that a woman acquires privileges in a different Hindu Undivided Family (HUF) entirely after marriage since she becomes a part of her husband’s family.
Daughters who are now married or single have equal access to their father’s property as their brothers have. Additionally, they have the same rights, obligations, and responsibilities as their brothers. If both the father and the daughter were alive on September 9, 2005, it was also decided that a daughter enjoys the same rights. Whether or not the father was alive to this day, the SC ruled in 2018 that a daughter might inherit her deceased father’s assets. The women were then welcomed to participate in coparcening. They are entitled to request a piece of the father’s estate.
Daughters have the right to inherit their parents’ self-acquired property as well as any other property of which they are absolute owners, the Supreme Court ruled in 2022. It also stated that this rule would apply even in situations where a daughter’s parent passed away intestate before the Hindu Succession Act, 1956 was codified.
Conclusion
Therefore, the 1956 Hindu Succession Act must be retained with the outdated idea of joint Hindu family property. Most crucially, it will be more accurate to say that those who inherit a portion of joint family property or coparcenary property via birth are the sons, grandsons, and great-grandsons of the joint property owners. All of these are co-owners or co-parcelers.
To conclude the discussion on this topic, however, we can only say that the idea of “ancestral” property is broad and complicated. To date, the courts have not made a distinction between ancestral property, joint family property, or self-acquired property because these terms can overlap depending on the specifics of a case.
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