Hindu Succession Act – UPSC GS2

The Mitakshara school of Hindu law codified as the Hindu Succession Act, 1956 governed succession and inheritance of property but only recognised males as legal heirs.

It applied to everyone who is not a Muslim, Christian, Parsi or Jew by religion. Buddhists, Sikhs, Jains and followers of Arya Samaj, Brahmo Samaj, are also considered Hindus for this law.

In a Hindu Undivided Family, several legal heirs through generations can exist jointly.

Traditionally, only male descendants of a common ancestor along with their mothers, wives and unmarried daughters are considered a joint Hindu family. The legal heirs hold the family property jointly.

The 1956 Act was amended in September 2005 and women were recognised as coparceners for property partitions arising from 2005.

Section 6 of the Act was amended to make a daughter of a coparcener also a coparcener by birth “in her own right in the same manner as the son”.

It also gave the daughter the same rights and liabilities “in the coparcenary property as she would have had if she had been a son”.

The law applies to ancestral property and to intestate succession in personal property, where succession happens as per law and not through a will.