Backing women’s share in parental property, the Supreme Court on Tuesday maintained that daughters are is entitled to equal right over parental property as it in accordance with the 2005 amendment in the Hindu Succession Act.
The Hindu Succession Act, which was amended in 2005, gives daughters equal rights in their ancestral assets.
The top court said a daughter can claim equal share in family property irrespective of whether her father was alive or not at the time of the amendment.
A three-judge bench, headed by Justice Arun Kumar Mishra, on Tuesday said, “Once a daughter, always a daughter… a son is a son till he is married. The daughter shall remain a coparcener (one who shares equally with others in inheritance of an undivided joint family property) throughout life, irrespective of whether her father is alive or not.”
The question that urged the top court to make the remarks today was: “Does the Hindu Succession (Amendment) Act, 2005, which gave equal right to daughters in ancestral property, has a retrospective effect?”
The top court was hearing a batch of appeals that raised the issue.
The question arose out of the top court’s contradicting rulings in 2016 and 2018 with regards to interpretation of Section 6 of the Hindu Succession Act, 1956, which was later amended in 2005.
In 2018, the court had re-affirmed that a daughter “by birth become a coparcener in her own right in the same manner as the son.”