Family Law II: Complete Notes

About this subject

Family Law II is the law that decides what happens to family property (marriage, divorce, maintenance, adoption and guardianship belong to Family Law I). It asks: Who owns the property of a family? Who can sell it? How is it divided when the family separates? When a person dies, who gets what, and in what share? These questions are answered for Hindus, Muslims, Christians and Parsis, in five units:

1. The Hindu joint family and its coparcenary.
2. The Hindu Succession Act.
3. The Muslim law of gifts, wills, wakf and pre-emption.
4. The Muslim law of inheritance.
5. Succession among Christians and Parsis under the Indian Succession Act.

The subject is central in university examinations, Judicial Services examinations, UGC NET and CLAT PG, and just as central in practice. Partition suits and inheritance disputes fill the civil courts of every district; many are between brothers and sisters, and many turn on a single fraction. Shares must therefore be calculated step by step, fraction by fraction.

The Hindu Joint Family as the Starting Point

This is the Hindu joint family. For centuries it was the basic unit of Hindu society, and Hindu property law grew around it. How Hindu property is divided or inherited cannot be understood without first understanding how the joint family holds its property.

The Two Schools of Hindu Law: Mitakshara and Dayabhaga

Classical Hindu law is not one single system. On property matters it divides into two great schools:

• Mitakshara: a commentary written by Vijnaneshwara on the Yajnavalkya Smriti, an ancient Sanskrit law text. It governs Hindus in the rest of India (outside West Bengal and Assam). It has smaller sub-schools (Benares, Mithila, Maharashtra and Dravida) which differ on a few points of detail.
• Dayabhaga: based on a work by Jimutavahana. It governs Hindus in West Bengal and Assam.

The difference comes down to one question: when does a son get a right in the family property? That single difference produces a second one, about what happens on a co-owner's death.

Point	Mitakshara	Dayabhaga
Son's right in ancestral property	Arises the moment he is born	Nothing by birth
Father and sons	Co-owners from the very beginning	Father is full owner during his lifetime; sons take only when he dies
Death of a co-owner	Interest traditionally passed to surviving co-owners by survivorship	Share passes by succession to his heirs, as in ordinary inheritance
Area	Rest of India	West Bengal and Assam

The Joint Hindu Family

• Lineally descended means descended in a straight line: son, grandson, great-grandson.
• There is no limit of generations. The family includes the common ancestor, his sons, their sons and so on, along with the wives who have married into it.
• A daughter traditionally left her father's family on marriage and joined her husband's family. The law of coparcenary has changed this for daughters in an important way (see the 2005 amendment below).
• It is a creation of law, not of agreement. Nobody signs a contract to join it; one is born, married or adopted into it.

Presumption of jointness and burden of proof

• Every Hindu family is presumed to be joint. A person who says the family has separated must prove the separation.
• The presumption that the family is joint is not a presumption that it owns joint property. A family can be joint and own no property at all.
• A person who claims that a particular house or field is joint family property must prove it, usually by showing a joint fund, called a nucleus, from which it could be acquired.
• Once a nucleus is proved, the burden shifts to the member who says the property is his own.

The Coparcenary

Inside the joint family is a smaller, special group, the coparcenary, whose members (coparceners) acquire an interest in the joint family property by birth. Only coparceners own the joint family property. Other members, such as wives, have a right to be maintained out of it, but are not co-owners.

Daughters as coparceners

For centuries only males could be coparceners; a daughter was a member of the joint family but never a coparcener. Under the Hindu Succession (Amendment) Act, 2005, the daughter of a coparcener is a coparcener by birth, in her own right, exactly like a son, and remains one in her father's family even after marriage. The modern coparcenary includes sons and daughters alike.

Features of a Coparcenary

1. Ownership by birth. The day a coparcener is born, an interest in the coparcenary property is created; he or she does not wait for anyone to die.
2. Unity of ownership and possession. All coparceners together own the whole property, and each is entitled to enjoy all of it. No coparcener can point to a particular room or field and say, "this part is mine".
3. Fluctuating interest. The interest is not a fixed share: it becomes smaller when a coparcener is born and larger when one dies. Until a partition, no coparcener owns a definite fraction; the interest is undivided and fluctuating.
4. Right to demand partition. Every adult coparcener can demand division; on partition the fluctuating interest becomes a definite share.
5. Survivorship (traditional law). On a coparcener's death, his undivided interest did not go to his heirs but merged into the property of the surviving coparceners. The Hindu Succession Act first limited survivorship and then, in 2005, practically abolished it.

Unobstructed and Obstructed Heritage

Classical Hindu law also classifies property by the way a right in it arises.

Point	Apratibandha daya (unobstructed heritage)	Sapratibandha daya (obstructed heritage)
Right arises	By birth	Only on the owner's death, and only if he leaves no nearer heir
Why so called	Nothing stands between heir and property; the father's existence does not block it	The heir's hope is blocked by the owner's life and by the chance of a nearer heir
Example	A son's interest in his father's ancestral property (the clearest example)	A nephew's hope of inheriting his uncle's own property

Joint family property is unobstructed heritage, and that is the foundation of the coparcenary.

Joint Family Property and Separate Property

This classification decides almost every problem in the unit. A coparcener has a birth right only in joint family property. Over separate property a Hindu has full ownership: he can sell, gift or bequeath it, and his sons cannot object.

Sources of joint family property

1. Ancestral property (the most important): property that a male Hindu inherits from his father, father's father or father's father's father. Property inherited from a maternal grandfather or from a mother is not ancestral in this technical sense.
2. Property acquired with joint family funds, e.g. a shop the karta buys out of the family business's profits.
3. Property received in a partition of a larger family, which becomes the joint property of the receiving branch.
4. Blending: separate property that a coparcener voluntarily throws into the common stock, giving up his separate claim. The intention to give up the separate claim must be clearly proved.

Separate property

• Property earned by one's own effort without using joint family funds, e.g. a software engineer's salary and the flat he buys from it.
• Gains of learning: under the Hindu Gains of Learning Act, 1930, whatever a member earns through his education or skill is his separate property, even if the family paid for that education.
• Property received by gift or will from someone outside the line of ancestors.
• Property inherited from a mother or a maternal grandfather.

Ancestral Property after the Hindu Succession Act, 1956

Reasons:

• Section 8 gives the property to Class I heirs (son, daughter, widow, mother) in their individual capacity.
• The Act names the son, but not the son of a living son, as a Class I heir.
• Treating the son's share as joint family property would create two kinds of Class I heirs: males holding for their sons, females holding absolutely. The Act did not intend this.

Property inherited before the Act

Earlier holder died	Law applied	Character in heir's hands
Before 17 June 1956 (commencement of the Hindu Succession Act)	Old Hindu law	Stays ancestral
After 17 June 1956, passing under Section 8	Hindu Succession Act	Separate property of the heir

The Karta

A family property cannot be run by a committee voting on every bill, so Hindu law gives its management to one person, the karta, the manager of the joint family.

• Traditionally he is the senior-most male coparcener, usually the father.
• His position comes from his status in the family, not from election or appointment.
• If the senior-most member gives up the position, a junior coparcener can act as karta with the consent of the others.

Can a woman be karta?

Powers of the karta

• Manages the family property and business; collects income, pays expenses, and provides for the maintenance, education and marriages of members.
• Represents the family in dealings with outsiders; sues and is sued on its behalf.
• Contracts debts for family purposes and acknowledges debts.
• Unlike a trustee, he need not save, invest or account for every rupee to the other members, unless there is fraud or misappropriation.
• His power to sell or mortgage family property is limited; this is the most important part of the topic.

Alienation of Joint Family Property by the Karta

Alienation means transferring property to another by sale, mortgage, gift or exchange. The karta is only a manager, not the sole owner, so he may alienate joint family property only in three situations:

Ground	Meaning	Examples
Legal necessity	A pressing need of the family	Maintenance of members; a daughter's marriage (if the family has no money for it, the karta may sell a field); a member's funeral; government revenue; family debts; defending family property in litigation
Benefit of the estate	A transaction a prudent owner would enter into to protect or improve the property	Selling a scattered piece of land to buy a better piece next to the family farm
Indispensable duties	Religious and pious obligations	Funeral ceremonies; shraddha of ancestors

Effect of alienation without necessity or benefit

• It is not automatically void but voidable at the option of the other coparceners, who may sue to have it set aside. If they choose not to challenge it, it stands.
• Under Article 109 of the Limitation Act, 1963, a coparcener seeking to set aside his father's alienation of ancestral property must sue within 12 years from the date the buyer takes possession.

Alienation by a Coparcener of His Own Undivided Interest

Whether an ordinary coparcener can deal with his own undivided interest depends on the kind of transfer.

Transfer	Position
Sale for value	The Mitakshara schools differ. In Bombay, Madras and Madhya Pradesh, a coparcener may sell his undivided interest for value without the others' consent, and the buyer may sue for partition to get that share. In Uttar Pradesh and Bihar (Benares and Mithila schools), such a sale is not allowed without the consent of the other coparceners.
Gift	As a general rule, not allowed. A gift of the undivided interest to a stranger without the other coparceners' consent is void.
Will	Allowed. Section 30 of the Hindu Succession Act, read with Section 6(2), lets any coparcener, male or female, dispose of his or her undivided interest in a Mitakshara coparcenary by will.

The Father's Special Powers of Gift

Unlike an ordinary coparcener, the father, as karta, has a few extra powers of gift:

• a gift of a small part of ancestral movable property out of affection, e.g. to his wife or daughter;
• a gift of a reasonable portion of ancestral immovable property for pious purposes.

The Doctrine of Pious Obligation

Classical Hindu law regarded it as a sin for a man to die without paying his debts. So a son, grandson and great-grandson had a pious duty to pay the debts of their father, grandfather and great-grandfather.

Two limits:

1. It extended only to the son's interest in the joint family property; he was not personally liable beyond it.
2. It did not cover illegal or immoral debts, called avyavaharika debts, such as debts for gambling, drinking or a crime. An untainted debt could be recovered from the whole joint family property, including the sons' interest.

Abolition by Section 6(4)

Under Section 6(4) of the Hindu Succession Act (2005 amendment), no court will allow a creditor to proceed against a son, grandson or great-grandson for a debt of his father, grandfather or great-grandfather solely on the ground of pious obligation. A proviso saves debts contracted before the amendment came into force on 9 September 2005.

Debt contracted	Pious obligation available to the creditor?
Before 9 September 2005	Yes, against a son, grandson or great-grandson born or adopted before that date
On or after 9 September 2005	No; the doctrine is abolished

Partition

A coparcenary comes to an end by partition, which has two distinct meanings:

Division (severance) of status	Division by metes and bounds
A coparcener ceases to be joint with the others	Actual physical division of the property into separate portions
His share becomes definite and fixed from that moment, though the property is not yet physically divided	May follow long after the severance

Who can demand partition

• Every adult coparcener; since 2005 this includes daughters.
• A minor coparcener, through a next friend, but the court grants it only if partition is for the minor's benefit.
• The father, as head of the family, has a special power under classical Mitakshara law to divide the property between himself and his sons even without their consent.

Who cannot demand partition but takes a share

• Wife: cannot demand partition, but on a partition between her husband and his sons she receives a share equal to a son.
• Mother: cannot demand partition, but if her sons partition after their father's death she receives a share equal to a son.

This rule was followed in most of India, but not in much of southern India, where she received only maintenance. It explains why the widow received a separate share in the leading case on notional partition (below).

Modes of Partition

Declaration of intention

The most basic mode is a clear and unequivocal declaration by a coparcener of his intention to separate, communicated to the other coparceners. No form is needed: a letter, notice or even an oral statement suffices, if the intention is definite and it reaches the others.

Other modes

• Agreement among the coparceners.
• Arbitration.
• Suit for partition: filing the suit is itself an unequivocal declaration, so severance dates from the filing, even if the decree comes years later.
• Statutory mode: under Section 19 of the Special Marriage Act, 1954, a member of an undivided Hindu family who marries under that Act is deemed severed from the family. Under Section 21A, added in 1976, there is no such severance where both spouses are Hindus, Buddhists, Sikhs or Jains.

Registered deed or decree for Section 6

The Explanation to Section 6(5) of the Hindu Succession Act provides that partition means a partition made by a registered partition deed or effected by a decree of a court. It was added to stop families from creating false oral partitions to defeat the daughters' new rights.

Calculation of Shares on Partition

Member	Basis	Share
Prince	Coparcener	1/5
Zoya	Wife (share equal to a child)	1/5
Farhan, Aadil, Neha	Coparceners	1/5 each
Check	5 × 1/5	Whole property

Member	Share
Prince, Zoya, Aadil, Neha	1/5 each (together 4/5)
Farhan, Renu, Farhan's son, Farhan's daughter	1/20 each (together 4/20 = 1/5)
Check	4/5 + 1/5 = whole property

Reopening of Partition and Reunion

A partition is normally final but may be reopened in a few situations, for example where it:

• was obtained by fraud;
• left out a coparcener;
• gave no share to a child then in the mother's womb; such a child, once born, can demand reopening so as to receive a share.

Reunion is the opposite of partition: members who separated decide to become joint again, which restores their joint status with all its incidents. The law is strict about it. As a rule, a reunion can take place only between persons who were parties to the original partition.

Section 6 before the 2005 Amendment

Section 6 of the Hindu Succession Act is the most important provision of the unit. It answers: when a coparcener dies, what happens to his undivided interest? The law as it stood from 1956 to 2005 still matters, because many cases and examination problems concern deaths in that period.

• Main rule: on a male coparcener's death, his interest passed to the surviving coparceners by survivorship, not by succession.
• Proviso: if he left a female relative specified in Class I of the Schedule (such as a widow, daughter or mother), or a male relative of that class claiming through such a female (like the son of a predeceased daughter), his interest passed by his will, if any, or otherwise by intestate succession under the Act to all his Class I heirs.

The Leading Case on Notional Partition

1. Coparceners: Khandappa and his two sons (daughters were not coparceners then).
2. Notional partition: between him and his sons, with Hirabai taking a share equal to a son: four shares of 1/4.
3. Distribute Khandappa's 1/4 under Section 8 among six Class I heirs (widow, two sons, three daughters): 1/4 × 1/6 = 1/24 each.
4. Add up (see table).

Person	Notional partition	As heir	Total
Hirabai	6/24	1/24	7/24
Each son (2)	6/24	1/24	7/24
Each daughter (3)	Nil	1/24	1/24
Check	3 × 7/24 = 21/24	3 × 1/24 = 3/24	24/24

Worked problem under the old law

The daughter gets 1/12 while her brother gets 5/12. This inequality is exactly what the 2005 amendment set out to remove.

The Road to Equality: State Amendments

• Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka and Maharashtra amended the Hindu Succession Act by their own laws to make daughters coparceners by birth, but left out daughters already married when the state law came into force.
• Kerala went further: its Joint Hindu Family System Abolition Act, 1975 abolished the right by birth altogether, so family members held property as tenants in common. In July 2025 the Kerala High Court held these provisions repugnant to the amended Section 6, which must prevail, at least for families governed by Mitakshara law. The Supreme Court is examining an appeal against that ruling.

In 2005, Parliament amended Section 6 for the whole country.

Section 6 after the 2005 Amendment

The Hindu Succession (Amendment) Act, 2005 came into force on 9 September 2005 and substituted a new Section 6.

• Section 6(1): the daughter of a coparcener becomes a coparcener by birth, in her own right, in the same manner as a son; she has the same rights in the coparcenary property as if she had been a son, and the same liabilities. Any reference to a coparcener in Hindu law includes a daughter. Proviso: nothing in it affects any disposition or alienation, including any partition or testamentary disposition, made before 20 December 2004, the date the Bill was introduced in the Rajya Sabha.
• Section 6(2): property a female takes as a coparcener is held with the incidents of coparcenary ownership, and she can dispose of it by will.
• Section 6(3): when a Hindu dies after the amendment, his or her coparcenary interest devolves by testamentary or intestate succession under the Act, not by survivorship; survivorship is practically abolished for deaths after 9 September 2005. The interest is found by a deemed partition in which: the daughter is allotted the same share as a son; the share of a predeceased son or daughter goes to his or her surviving children, as if the predeceased child were alive at the partition; and the share of a predeceased child of a predeceased child goes to that grandchild's children in the same way.
• Section 6(4): abolishes pious obligation for debts contracted after the amendment.
• Section 6(5): nothing in the section applies to a partition effected before 20 December 2004. Its Explanation limits partition to one by registered deed or court decree.

Point	Before 2005	After 2005
Daughter	Not a coparcener	Coparcener by birth, with a son's rights and liabilities
Devolution on death	Survivorship, unless the proviso applied	Succession; survivorship practically abolished
Deceased's interest	Notional partition (daughters not allotted a share)	Deemed partition; daughter allotted a son's share
Pious obligation	Applied	Abolished for debts from 9 September 2005

The Daughter's Right after 2005

The question: does a daughter get the benefit of the new Section 6 only if her father was alive on 9 September 2005?

Other points in Vineeta Sharma:

• The notional partition used to find a deceased coparcener's interest is only a legal fiction; it does not bring about an actual partition or end the coparcenary.
• A plea of oral partition must be backed by public documents.
• Prakash v. Phulavati was overruled, and Danamma was overruled to the extent it was contrary.
• Daughters get an equal share even where a preliminary decree for partition was passed before 2005, so long as the final decree had not been passed.
• Courts should decide pending cases on this question, as far as possible, within six months.

Case	Bench	Must the father be alive on 9 September 2005?
Prakash v. Phulavati (2015)	Two judges	Yes: only living daughters of living coparceners
Danamma v. Amar (2018)	Two judges	Equal shares given though the father died in 2001
Vineeta Sharma v. Rakesh Sharma (2020)	Three judges	No: the right is by birth (Prakash overruled; Danamma overruled to the extent contrary)

The Daughter as Coparcener: Present Legal Position

The present legal position on the daughter's right in the Mitakshara coparcenary is clear.

Numericals after 2005

Each problem is solved in four steps: coparceners at death, deemed partition under Section 6(3), devolution of the deceased's own share under Section 8, and adding up.

Problem 1: the basic family under the present law

• Step 1, coparceners at death: Prince, Farhan and Neha, because the daughter is now a coparcener.
• Step 2, deemed partition under Section 6(3): the property is divided between Prince and his two children, with Zoya, as the wife, taking a share equal to a child. On the usual rule there are four shares of 1/4 each.
• Step 3, devolution: Prince's 1/4 devolves on his Class I heirs, namely Zoya, Farhan, Neha and his mother. There are four heirs, so each gets 1/4 × 1/4 = 1/16.
• Step 4, add up:

Heir	Share on deemed partition	Share by succession	Total
Zoya (widow)	1/4	1/16	4/16 + 1/16 = 5/16
Farhan (son)	1/4	1/16	5/16
Neha (daughter)	1/4 (her own coparcenary share)	1/16	5/16
Prince's mother	Nil	1/16	1/16

Check: 5 + 5 + 5 + 1 = 16/16.

The wife's share on the deemed partition

Giving the wife a share equal to a child is the Gurupad method, and the courts continue to use it after 2005. A three-judge bench of the Supreme Court used it in an example in Revanasiddappa in 2023. In Vineeta Sharma too, the Court said that on a partition the wife of a coparcener takes a share equal to a son. But in parts of southern India, where custom gives the wife no share on partition, some courts would give the widow only her share as an heir.

Problem 2: two daughters and grandchildren

• Step 1, coparceners: Prince, his three children (Farhan, Neha and Renu), and also Aadil and Hansa, because the children of a coparcener are coparceners by birth.
• Step 2, deemed partition, done branch by branch: at the top level the property is divided among Prince, his wife Zoya, the branch of Farhan, Neha and Renu. That is five shares of 1/5 each. Aadil and Hansa get no separate share at this level, because they stand inside the branch of their father, who is alive. Prince's mother takes nothing in this partition: a mother takes a partition share only when her own sons divide the property after her husband's death.
• Step 3, devolution under Section 8: Prince's own 1/5 devolves on his Class I heirs, namely his widow Zoya, his son Farhan, his daughters Neha and Renu, and his mother. The grandchildren are not his heirs here, because their father is alive. There are five heirs, so each takes 1/5 × 1/5 = 1/25.
• Step 4, add up:

Heir	Share on deemed partition	Share by succession	Total
Zoya (widow)	1/5	1/25	5/25 + 1/25 = 6/25
Neha (daughter)	1/5	1/25	6/25
Renu (daughter)	1/5	1/25	6/25
Farhan and his branch (Aadil, Hansa)	1/5	1/25 (to Farhan)	6/25
Prince's mother	Nil	1/25	1/25

Check: 4 × 6 + 1 = 25/25.

The character of the property in Farhan's branch

• The 1/5 that Farhan's branch receives on the deemed partition remains coparcenary property, in which Aadil and Hansa have a right by birth.
• The 1/25 that Farhan inherits from Prince under Section 8 is his separate property, following the rule in Chander Sen.

Comparison: a Dayabhaga family

Children of Void and Voidable Marriages

Section 16 of the Hindu Marriage Act declares children of void and voidable marriages legitimate, but Section 16(3) limits their rights to the property of their parents. The question is whether such a child can claim anything in the coparcenary property.

Answering Questions on the Rights of Daughters

Descriptive question

1. First explain what a coparcenary is.
2. State the old Section 6 and the inequality it produced, with the Gurupad calculation.
3. Explain the new Section 6, its savings, and the Explanation on partition.
4. Discuss Vineeta Sharma and state the present legal position.

Problem question

Summary: the coparcenary

The Hindu Succession Act, 1956: Scheme of the Act

Once a coparcener's interest is carved out of the joint family property, the next question is: when a Hindu dies without a will, who inherits the property, and in what shares?

Provisions	Subject
Sections 8 to 13	Property of a male Hindu dying intestate
Sections 14 to 16	Property of a female Hindu
Sections 18 to 28	General rules and disqualifications applying to both
Section 30	Testamentary succession: a Hindu may make a will
The Schedule	List of Class I and Class II heirs

Application of the Act

Section 2: persons to whom the Act applies

• Any person who is a Hindu by religion in any of its forms, including a Virashaiva, a Lingayat, or a follower of the Brahmo, Prarthana or Arya Samaj.
• Buddhists, Jains and Sikhs.
• Any other person who is not a Muslim, Christian, Parsi or Jew by religion, unless it is proved that he would not have been governed by Hindu law.

Section 2(2) excludes members of the Scheduled Tribes, unless the Central Government directs otherwise by a notification. The Supreme Court has recently spoken on this exclusion (see Recent Developments below).

Section 4: overriding effect

• Any text, rule or custom of Hindu law in force before the Act ceases to apply to any matter for which the Act provides.
• Any other law inconsistent with the Act ceases to apply to the extent of the inconsistency.

Section 5: matters outside the Act

Section 5 keeps a few things outside the Act. The most important is the property of a person whose succession is governed by the Indian Succession Act because his or her marriage was solemnised under the Special Marriage Act, 1954. This covers, for example, a Hindu who marries a non-Hindu under that Act. If both spouses are Hindus, the Hindu Succession Act still applies.

Key Terms Used in the Act

Agnates and cognates

Term	Meaning	Examples
Agnate	A person related to the intestate wholly through males	Father's brother's son (the link runs only through males)
Cognate	A person related to the intestate through one or more females	Mother's brother's son (link through the mother); sister's son (link through the sister)

Full blood, half blood and uterine blood

Relationship	Father	Mother
Full blood	Same	Same
Half blood	Same	Different
Uterine blood	Different	Same

Illegitimate and adopted children

• The Act treats illegitimate children as related to their mother and to one another, so an illegitimate child can inherit from the mother.
• Under the Hindu Adoptions and Maintenance Act, 1956, an adopted child is treated for all purposes as the child of the adoptive parents.

Order of Succession for a Male Hindu

Section 8: the general rule

The property of a male Hindu dying intestate devolves in this order:

1. First, upon the heirs in Class I of the Schedule.
2. If there is no Class I heir, upon the heirs in Class II.
3. If there is no heir in either class, upon his agnates.
4. If there is no agnate either, upon his cognates.

Class I heirs

There are sixteen Class I heirs. They are easiest to remember in groups.

Group	Heirs	Number
1. The closest relatives	Son, daughter, widow, mother	4
2. Family of a predeceased son	His son, his daughter, his widow	3
3. Children of a predeceased daughter	Her son, her daughter	2
4. Next generation down in the son's line	Son, daughter and widow of a predeceased son of a predeceased son	3
Added by the 2005 amendment (all through a daughter's line)	Son of a predeceased daughter of a predeceased daughter; daughter of a predeceased daughter of a predeceased daughter; daughter of a predeceased son of a predeceased daughter; daughter of a predeceased daughter of a predeceased son	4

The first four groups make the original twelve heirs. The 2005 amendment added four more, bringing the total to sixteen.

Section 9 and Section 11: how the classes take

• Class I: under Section 9, all Class I heirs take simultaneously, and they exclude all other heirs. If even one Class I heir is alive, no Class II heir gets anything.
• Class II: the order matters. An heir in an earlier entry is preferred to an heir in a later entry. Under Section 11, the heirs within the same entry share equally.

Class II heirs: the nine entries

Entry	Heirs
I	Father
II	Son's daughter's son, son's daughter's daughter, brother, sister
III	Daughter's son's son, daughter's son's daughter, daughter's daughter's son, daughter's daughter's daughter
IV	Brother's son, sister's son, brother's daughter, sister's daughter
V	Father's father, father's mother
VI	Father's widow, brother's widow
VII	Father's brother, father's sister
VIII	Mother's father, mother's mother
IX	Mother's brother, mother's sister

Distribution among Class I Heirs: Section 10

Section 10 gives four rules for dividing the property among Class I heirs.

1. Rule 1: the widow takes one share. If there is more than one widow, all of them together take one share.
2. Rule 2: each surviving son, each surviving daughter and the mother take one share each.
3. Rule 3: the heirs in the branch of each predeceased son, and of each predeceased daughter, together take one share.
4. Rule 4: division within a branch.
   • In the branch of a predeceased son, his widow and his surviving sons and daughters take equal portions, and the branch of any predeceased son of his takes the same portion.
   • In the branch of a predeceased daughter, her surviving sons and daughters take equal portions.

Solving Male Intestate Succession Problems

Easy problem: separate property

• Step 1: the house is his separate property, so Section 8 applies directly. There is no coparcenary question.
• Step 2: identify the heirs. All four are Class I heirs.
• Step 3: apply Section 10. The widow takes one share under Rule 1. The son, the daughter and the mother take one share each under Rule 2. There are four shares, so each person gets 1/4 of the house.

Moderate problem: predeceased son and predeceased daughter

• Top level: Zoya is one share, Neha is one share, the mother is one share, Farhan's branch is one share, and the predeceased daughter's branch is one share. Five shares, so each top-level share is 1/5.
• Farhan's branch: his widow Renu, his son Aadil and his daughter Hansa take equal portions, so each gets 1/5 × 1/3 = 1/15.
• Predeceased daughter's branch: there is only her son, so he takes the whole 1/5.

Check: Zoya, Neha, the mother and the predeceased daughter's son each have 1/5, which makes 4/5. Renu, Aadil and Hansa together have 3/15, which is 1/5. 4/5 + 1/5 = the whole.

Difficult problem: two generations of predeceased heirs

Build the family tree first: Prince at the top; below him Farhan (alive) and Aadil (dead); below Aadil, Renu, Hansa and his dead son; below that dead son, Neha and his son.

• Step 1, top level: Zoya one share, Farhan one share, and Aadil's branch one share. So each gets 1/3.
• Step 2, Aadil's branch under Rule 4: his widow Renu, his surviving daughter Hansa, and the branch of his predeceased son take equal portions. Each gets 1/3 × 1/3 = 1/9.
• Step 3, the branch of Aadil's predeceased son: his widow Neha and his son take equal portions of 1/9, so each gets 1/18.

Heir	Share	In eighteenths
Zoya (widow)	1/3	6/18
Farhan (son)	1/3	6/18
Renu (widow of predeceased son)	1/9	2/18
Hansa (daughter of predeceased son)	1/9	2/18
Neha (widow of predeceased son of predeceased son)	1/18	1/18
Son of predeceased son of predeceased son	1/18	1/18

Check: 6 + 6 + 2 + 2 + 1 + 1 = 18/18.

Class II Heirs in Operation

Mother and father of a bachelor

Brother, sister and nephew

Uterine brother and father's brother's son

• The uterine brother is not a "brother" for the purposes of Class II, because of the Explanation to the Schedule. He is related through the mother, so he is a cognate.
• The son of the father's brother is not in any Class II entry either, but he is related wholly through males, so he is an agnate.
• Under Section 8, agnates come before cognates. So the cousin through the father's line takes the property, and the uterine brother gets nothing.

Full Blood and Half Blood: Section 18

Heirs related to the intestate by full blood are preferred to heirs related by half blood, if the nature of the relationship is the same in every other respect.

Agnates and Cognates: Sections 12 and 13

When the property goes to agnates or cognates, Section 12 gives three rules of preference, and Section 13 tells how to count.

Counting degrees: Section 13

• Relationship is measured in degrees.
• Every generation going up is a degree of ascent; every generation going down is a degree of descent.
• Under Section 13(2), the count includes the intestate himself.

Rules of preference: Section 12

1. Rule 1: an heir with fewer or no degrees of ascent is preferred.
2. Rule 2: where the degrees of ascent are equal or none, the heir with fewer or no degrees of descent is preferred.
3. Rule 3: where neither is preferred under the first two rules, they take simultaneously and share equally.

Claimant	Degrees of ascent	Degrees of descent
Brother's son's son	2 (the intestate and his father)	3 (the brother, his son and his grandson)
Father's brother's son	3 (the intestate, his father and his grandfather)	2

Rule 1 prefers fewer degrees of ascent, so the brother's son's son takes the whole property.

General Rules of Succession

• Section 19, mode of succession: when two or more heirs succeed together, they take per capita, that is, one share each, unless the Act says otherwise. They also hold as tenants in common, which means each has a separate share that passes to his own heirs.
• Section 20, child in the womb: a child who was in the mother's womb at the intestate's death, and is later born alive, inherits as if born before the death.
• Section 21, simultaneous deaths: where two persons die in circumstances that make it uncertain who died first, such as an accident, the younger is presumed to have survived the elder, until the contrary is proved.

Property of a Female Hindu: Section 14

The law on a woman's property changed more dramatically than anywhere else.

Position before 1956: the widow's estate

• A Hindu widow who inherited property from her husband usually took only a limited estate, often called the widow's estate.
• She could enjoy the income for her lifetime, but could not sell or mortgage the property except for legal necessity.
• On her death, the property did not go to her own heirs. It went back to the heirs of her husband, called reversioners.
• The Hindu Women's Rights to Property Act, 1937 improved her position, but still gave her only this limited interest.

Section 14(1): full ownership

Any property possessed by a female Hindu, whether acquired before or after the commencement of the Act, is held by her as full owner, and not as a limited owner.

The Explanation gives "property" a very wide meaning. It includes movable and immovable property acquired:

• by inheritance or by will;
• at a partition;
• in lieu of maintenance or arrears of maintenance;
• by gift from any person;
• by her own skill or exertion, by purchase, by prescription, or in any other manner whatsoever;
• and her stridhan.

So a limited estate that a widow was holding in 1956 automatically became her absolute property.

Section 14(2): the restricted-estate exception

Section 14(1) does not apply to property acquired by gift, will or any other instrument, or under a decree, order or award, where the terms of that instrument or decree prescribe a restricted estate.

Reconciling Section 14(1) and Section 14(2)

Point	Section 14(1)	Section 14(2)
Nature	The main rule	A proviso, read narrowly
When it applies	Property received in recognition of a pre-existing right (for example, maintenance)	Instrument or decree creating a new right for the first time and prescribing a restricted estate
Result	Full ownership; restrictions wiped out	Restricted estate; terms of the instrument govern

This area is not fully settled.

Succession to a Female Hindu: Sections 15 and 16

The general order: Section 15(1)

The heirs of a female Hindu dying intestate are arranged in five entries, and an earlier entry excludes a later one:

1. Her sons and daughters (including the children of any predeceased son or daughter) and her husband.
2. The heirs of her husband.
3. Her mother and father.
4. The heirs of her father.
5. The heirs of her mother.

Section 16 adds that the children of a predeceased son or daughter take, between them, the share their parent would have taken.

A writ petition challenging this order of succession was later disposed of by the Supreme Court in November 2025. The Court left the constitutional question open, directed that such disputes should first go to pre-litigation mediation, and urged Hindu women to make wills. The rule therefore remains the law today.

The source rules: Section 15(2)

Section 15(2) creates two exceptions based on the source of the property. They apply when the woman leaves no son or daughter, nor children of a predeceased son or daughter.

Clause	Property inherited from	Goes to
Clause (a)	Her father or mother	The heirs of her father
Clause (b)	Her husband or her father-in-law	The heirs of her husband

Problems on succession to a female Hindu

Easy problem

Children of a predeceased son

A source problem: Section 15(2)(a)

A difficult problem: Section 15(2)(b) with Section 16

• Step 1, find the source: the house came from her husband and she left no child, so Section 15(2)(b) sends it to the heirs of her husband.
• Step 2, Section 16: to find those heirs, the house is treated as if it were Prince's property, and as if he had died intestate immediately after Zoya.
• Step 3, Prince's heirs at that imagined moment: his widow is no longer alive and he has no children, but his mother Hansa is a Class I heir. His brother Farhan is only in Class II. So Hansa takes the whole house. Zoya's mother gets nothing from it, and neither does Farhan.

Disqualifications and Special Rules

Section 25: the murderer

A person who commits murder, or abets it, is disqualified from inheriting:

• the property of the person murdered; and
• any other property in furtherance of whose succession he committed the murder.

Section 26: conversion

• A Hindu who converts to another religion is not himself disqualified from inheriting.
• But the children born to him after the conversion, and their descendants, are disqualified from inheriting from their Hindu relatives, unless they are Hindus when the succession opens.

Section 27: effect of disqualification

A disqualified person is treated as if he had died before the intestate, so the property passes exactly as it would have passed had he really died first.

Section 28: no disqualification for disease or defect

No person is disqualified on the ground of any disease, defect or deformity, or, except as the Act provides, on any other ground whatsoever.

Provisions omitted by the 2005 amendment

The 2005 amendment removed rules that discriminated against women:

• Section 23 (omitted): it had prevented a female heir from claiming partition of a dwelling house wholly occupied by the family until the male heirs chose to divide it.
• Section 24 (omitted): it had disqualified the widow of a predeceased son, the widow of a predeceased son of a predeceased son, and the widow of a brother, if she had remarried before the succession opened.
• Section 4(2) (omitted): it had saved State laws on the fragmentation and ceiling of agricultural holdings and on the devolution of tenancy rights in them. The aim of the omission was to let daughters inherit agricultural land on the same footing as sons.

Section 22: preferential right to acquire

Where an interest in immovable property or in a business of the intestate passes to two or more Class I heirs, and one of them proposes to sell his interest, the other Class I heirs have a preferential right to buy it. If they cannot agree on the price, the court fixes it. The purpose is to keep outsiders out of family property.

Point	Preferential right under Section 22	Kinship-based pre-emption (Punjab Pre-emption Act, 1913)
Nature	A rule of succession	A right of pre-emption based on kinship
Basis	Limited to Class I co-heirs	Based on kinship
Present status	Valid; applies to agricultural land too	Struck down by the Supreme Court in 1986

Section 29: escheat

If an intestate leaves no heir at all, the property goes to the Government, which takes it subject to the obligations and liabilities that an heir would have had. This is called escheat.

Section 30: testamentary succession

Any Hindu may dispose of his or her property by will.

Recent Developments

Scheduled Tribes

The Uniform Civil Code of Uttarakhand

• It came into force on 27 January 2025.
• It applies to all residents of the State except members of the Scheduled Tribes.
• For deaths after that date, its own rules of succession displace the personal laws there, including the Hindu Succession Act.
• Its Class I heirs, who include the spouse, the children and the parents, inherit without any distinction between men and women.
• Challenges to the Code are pending.

Gujarat has since passed a similar Code, which is not yet in force.

Summary: Succession under the Hindu Succession Act

Unit 3: Gifts, Wills, Wakf and Pre-emption under Muslim Law

Before the law of inheritance, it is necessary to study the ways in which a Muslim can transfer property himself: during life by gift, and after death by will. This unit also covers the wakf, a dedication of property to God, and pre-emption, a right to take over property sold by a co-owner or a neighbour, in preference to the outside buyer.

Hiba: Gift under Muslim Law

• Immediate: a gift to take effect in the future is not a hiba.
• Without exchange: if something is received in return, it is closer to a sale.
• Accepted: the gift must be accepted.

No writing or registration required

Under the Transfer of Property Act, a gift of immovable property must be made by a registered deed. But Section 129 of that Act says its chapter on gifts does not affect any rule of Muslim law. So a Muslim gift needs no writing and no registration; it may be oral.

Essentials of a valid hiba

1. Declaration by the donor (ijab): clear, unconditional, and expressing an intention to transfer ownership immediately.
2. Acceptance by the donee (qabul): express or implied; for a minor donee, the guardian may accept.
3. Delivery of possession to the donee (qabza).

If any one is missing, the gift is not complete.

Delivery of possession

This is the heart of the matter, and the Supreme Court has insisted on it again and again: a gift is complete only when the donor has given up his control and the donee has taken possession. Possession may be actual (the donor hands over the keys of a house and moves out) or constructive (possession given by law rather than by a physical act).

In October 2025, the Supreme Court again rejected an oral gift first set up in court more than 20 years after the donor's death, because the donor's own conduct and the land records showed that possession had never passed. Courts examine an alleged oral gift with great care.

When formal delivery is not required

• The donee is already in possession, e.g. as a tenant: declaration and acceptance are enough.
• A father gifts to his minor child: clear intention is enough, since he holds the property as the child's guardian.
• A husband gifts to his wife, or a wife to her husband, the house both live in: the donor need not move out, as both are already in joint occupation.

Who can gift, and what can be gifted

• Any Muslim of sound mind who has attained majority and owns the property can make a gift.
• Unlike a will, there is no limit: a Muslim may gift all his property during his lifetime, even if his heirs are left with nothing.
• The property must exist at the time of the gift. A gift of a future thing, like next year's crop, is void.
• A gift to a person not yet born is void, because there is nobody to accept it.

Gift with a condition cutting down full ownership

The gift is valid and the condition is void.

Refinement: Muslim law allows a person to give only the use of property for a limited time, such as for life, while keeping the property itself. That is a gift of the use, not a gift of the property with a void condition.

The doctrine of musha

Musha means an undivided share in property.

Hanafi law	Shia law
A gift of an undivided share in property capable of division is irregular, but not void. It becomes valid as soon as the share is separated and possession delivered.	A gift of an undivided share is valid if possession is given. The doctrine of musha does not apply at all.

Under Hanafi law, the rule does not apply to:

• property that cannot be divided conveniently, such as a small room or a staircase;
• a gift by one co-heir to another;
• a share in freehold property in a large commercial town;
• shares in a land company.

Indian courts have treated the musha rule as old-fashioned and kept it within narrow limits.

Kinds of gifts

Kind	Meaning	Possession and revocation
Hiba-bil-iwaz	Gift for consideration, the donee giving something in return; in substance a sale. Common example: a husband's transfer of property to his wife in return for her unpaid dower.	Delivery of possession is not essential.
Hiba-ba-shart-ul-iwaz	Gift made with a stipulation for a return.	Possession must be delivered; once the return is made, the gift cannot be revoked.
Sadaqa	Gift with a religious motive, to earn spiritual merit, e.g. to a poor person.	Cannot be revoked once possession is given.
Ariya	Gift of only the use of property, e.g. the right to live in a house, without ownership.	Can be revoked.

Revocation of gifts

Before delivery of possession, the gift is incomplete and the donor may simply cancel it. After possession, under Hanafi law, a gift can be revoked only with the donee's consent or by a decree of court, and even then not where:

• the donor and donee are husband and wife;
• the donee is related to the donor within the prohibited degrees, such as a son or a brother;
• the donee or the donor has died;
• the property has been lost, sold or changed in form;
• the donor has received something in return.

A sadaqa, once delivered, can never be revoked.

The death-bed gift (marz-ul-maut)

A gift made during marz-ul-maut (death illness) is treated as a will.

Such a gift still needs delivery of possession, is valid only up to one-third of the estate, and, if made to an heir, needs the consent of the other heirs, exactly like a will. This stops a dying person from defeating the rules of inheritance by gifting everything on the death bed.

Wasiyat: Will under Muslim Law

Any Muslim of sound mind who has attained majority can make a will. No form is prescribed: a will may be oral or written, and a written will need not be signed or attested. All that matters is that the testator's intention is clear.

Two limits on the power to make a will

1. One-third limit: a Muslim can bequeath only one-third of his net estate, i.e. what is left after funeral expenses and debts. A bequest beyond one-third is valid only if the heirs consent.
2. Bequest to an heir: not valid unless the other heirs consent, so that the shares fixed by the law of inheritance are not disturbed in favour of one heir.

Bequest to an heir	Hanafi law	Shia law
Consent of other heirs	Needed	Not needed, as long as the bequest does not exceed one-third
Time of consent	After the testator's death	Where consent is needed, before or after the death

Problems on the one-third rule

A bequest beyond one-third is not void altogether.

Revocation of a will

A will can be revoked at any time, expressly or by conduct, e.g. by selling the bequeathed property.

Gift and will compared

Point	Gift (hiba)	Will (wasiyat)
Limit	No limit of one-third	One-third, unless the heirs consent
Possession	Delivery of possession needed	No possession needed
To an heir	No such restriction during life; but a death-bed gift to an heir, being treated as a will, needs the other heirs' consent	Under Hanafi law, needs the other heirs' consent

Wakf

Familiar examples are a mosque, a graveyard, a school for poor children, or a fund to feed travellers. Once the wakf is made, the wakif's ownership ends and the property is treated as belonging to God. Its income is used for the purpose of the wakf, for ever.

Essentials of a valid wakf

1. Permanent dedication: a wakf for a fixed period, say 20 years, is not valid.
2. Competent wakif: of sound mind, a major, and owner of the property.
3. Religious, pious or charitable purpose according to Muslim law.
4. Unconditional and immediate: except where made by will, in which case it is limited to one-third of the estate like any other bequest.

Features

• Perpetual: it lasts for ever.
• Irrevocable: once complete, the wakif cannot take the property back.
• Inalienable: the property cannot be sold or gifted away, except as the law permits for the benefit of the wakf itself.

The family wakf (wakf-alal-aulad)

In a wakf-alal-aulad, the income goes first to the children and descendants of the wakif, and only after the family line ends to a charitable purpose.

The legislature responded with the Mussalman Wakf Validating Act, 1913, introduced by Muhammad Ali Jinnah. It declared that a Muslim may validly create a wakf for the maintenance of his family, children and descendants, provided the ultimate benefit is for a religious, pious or charitable purpose. A later Act of 1930 applied this law to wakfs created before 1913 as well.

The mutawalli

Since God cannot personally manage property, every wakf has a manager, the mutawalli. The mutawalli is not the owner and not a trustee in the strict English sense, but a manager or superintendent, bound to use the property and its income according to the terms of the wakf.

• Who: a man or a woman. Since 2025, the Waqf Act disqualifies a person below 21 years of age, of unsound mind or an undischarged insolvent, or who has been convicted of certain offences or has encroached on wakf property.
• Appointment: the first mutawalli is usually appointed by the wakif. Later appointments follow the wakf deed; if it is silent, the court or the Waqf Board may appoint.
• Powers: to manage the property, collect the income, pay the expenses and spend for the purposes of the wakf.
• Limits: he cannot sell, gift, mortgage or exchange wakf property. Since 2013, the Waqf Act has declared every such transfer void, and even a lease needs the Board's prior sanction.
• Removal: the Board can remove a mutawalli for misconduct, such as misappropriating income, failing to keep accounts, or breach of trust.

Mutawalli	Sajjadanashin
Manager of wakf property: a secular office of management	Spiritual head of a shrine: a spiritual office, often hereditary

One person may hold both offices.

The Waqf Act, 1995 and the Amendment of 2025

The Waqf Act, 1995 governs wakf administration. It sets up a Central Waqf Council to advise the Government, a Waqf Board in each state to supervise wakf properties, a survey and registration of all wakfs, and Waqf Tribunals to decide disputes.

The Waqf Amendment Act, 2025

Passed in April 2025 and in force from 8 April 2025, it renamed the 1995 Act the Unified Waqf Management, Empowerment, Efficiency and Development Act (the UMEED Act). Main changes:

• A wakf can be created only by a person practising Islam for at least five years who owns the property, and it needs a written deed.
• Wakf by user (property treated as wakf because of long religious use) is dropped for the future. One registered on or before commencement is protected, unless the property is in dispute or belongs to the Government.
• A family wakf must not deny inheritance rights to the wakif's heirs, including women heirs.
• Government property is not to be treated as wakf; a senior government officer inquires into such disputes.
• The Central Waqf Council and State Boards must include non-Muslim members.
• The Board loses its old power under Section 40 to decide on its own whether a property is wakf.
• The Limitation Act now applies to claims over wakf property.
• Every registered wakf must upload its details on a central portal.
• An appeal lies from a Waqf Tribunal to the High Court.

Supreme Court interim order of 15 September 2025

On petitions challenging the amendment, the Supreme Court refused to stay the whole Act, but:

• stayed the five-year practice condition until State Governments frame rules to verify it;
• allowed the government officer to inquire whether a property is Government land, but stayed the rule that the property stops being treated as wakf during that inquiry, and the rule letting the officer correct revenue records on his own finding;
• directed that, until the Waqf Tribunal finally decides title, no wakf is to be dispossessed and records are not to be changed;
• directed that the Central Waqf Council have no more than four non-Muslim members out of 22, and a State Board no more than three out of 11;
• did not stay the dropping of wakf by user for the future.

As of October 2026, the final decision on validity is pending, so the interim order continues. The general deadline for uploading registered wakf details on the portal closed in December 2025, but a Waqf Tribunal may extend it by up to six more months for sufficient cause.

Pre-emption (Shufa)

The image of rubbing out the buyer's name comes from Justice Mahmood of the Allahabad High Court.

Sources of pre-emption in India

Pre-emption exists as (1) a rule of Muslim law, (2) a custom in some regions, and (3) under statutes in some states.

Who can claim

Under Hanafi law, three classes can claim, in this order, a higher class excluding a lower one:

1. Shafi-i-sharik: a co-owner of the property sold.
2. Shafi-i-khalit: a participator in its appendages, such as a common right of way or a common water channel.
3. Shafi-i-jar: the owner of adjoining property, the neighbour.

Point	Hanafi law	Shia law
Who can claim	Co-owner, participator in appendages and neighbour, a higher class excluding a lower one	Only a co-owner, and only when the property is owned by not more than two persons

• The right arises only on a sale, not on a gift, sadaqa, wakf, inheritance, bequest, lease or mortgage.
• The pre-emptor must own the property giving him the right both at the time of the sale and until the decree.

The three demands

Because the right interferes with a completed sale, it is surrounded with strict formalities:

1. Talab-i-muwasibat (immediate demand): on hearing of the sale, he must at once declare his intention to claim pre-emption. Any unnecessary delay defeats the right.
2. Talab-i-ishhad (demand with witnesses): he must repeat the claim before at least two witnesses, and either in the presence of the buyer, or of the seller if still in possession, or on the property itself.
3. Talab-i-tamlik (demand for possession): in India, filing a suit.

If the first two demands are not properly made, the suit fails.

Pre-emption and the Constitution

The right to property was removed from the Fundamental Rights by the 44th Amendment, with effect from 1979, and now survives as a constitutional right under Article 300A. Courts today call pre-emption a weak right, not favoured by law, which must be strictly proved. In 2026, the Supreme Court repeated that a statutory right of pre-emption is neither a fundamental right nor even a constitutional right.

Whatever a Muslim has not given away during life, and has not validly bequeathed, passes at death to the heirs. That is governed by the Muslim law of inheritance.

Unit 4: The Muslim Law of Inheritance

The Muslim law of inheritance is one of the most carefully worked out systems of succession in the world. Much of it comes directly from the Quran, which fixes the shares of several close relatives in precise fractions: 1/2, 1/4, 1/8, 2/3, 1/3 and 1/6. Before Islam, Arab custom gave property mainly to the male fighting members of the tribe; the Quran gave fixed shares to women such as the wife, mother, daughter and sister, a remarkable reform for its time.

Application in India

The Muslim Personal Law (Shariat) Application Act, 1937 makes the Shariat the rule of decision in intestate succession where the parties are Muslims, notwithstanding any custom to the contrary. Before it, some communities, such as certain converts in western India, followed Hindu customs of inheritance.

Section 2 of the Act leaves out agricultural land. In many states, Muslims' agricultural land still passes under local tenancy or land laws, unless the state has extended the Shariat to it by its own amendment, as the old Madras province did in 1949 and Kerala in 1963.

The two schools

Most Indian Muslims are Sunnis, mostly of the Hanafi school; a minority are Shias, mostly of the Ithna Ashari school. Both share the same Quranic shares but arrange the heirs very differently.

General Principles of Muslim Inheritance

1. No right by birth

An heir has no interest in a relative's property while the relative is alive, only a hope of inheriting, called spes successionis. The right arises only at death, and heirs are determined as on that date. So if a son dies before his father, the son's widow and children have no right passing through him. Since a hope is not property, a transfer of it is void.

2. No joint family, no coparcenary

All property is treated alike, movable or immovable, inherited or self-acquired. There is no ancestral property in the Hindu sense.

3. No primogeniture

The eldest son has no special claim.

4. No representation

A grandchild cannot step into the place of a dead parent while a nearer heir in the same line is alive, in both the Hanafi and Shia schools.

5. Male takes double the female

As a general rule, a male takes double the share of a female of the same class (a son twice a daughter). Exceptions: uterine brothers and sisters share equally; and a mother may take as much as the father, under Shia law sometimes even more.

6. Unborn child

A child in the womb at the time of death inherits, provided it is born alive.

7. Illegitimate child and step-relations

Under Hanafi law, an illegitimate child inherits from the mother and her relatives, but not from the father; under Shia law, from neither parent. Step-children do not inherit from a step-parent, nor a step-parent from a step-child.

8. Homicide

Under Hanafi law, a person who causes another's death, even by accident, is excluded from inheriting from that person. Under Shia law, only intentional homicide excludes.

Point	Hanafi law	Shia law
Illegitimate child	Inherits from the mother and her relatives, not from the father	Inherits from neither parent
Homicide	Causing death, even by accident, excludes the killer from inheriting from that person	Only intentional homicide excludes

9. Difference of religion

Under classical Muslim law, a non-Muslim cannot inherit from a Muslim. But the Caste Disabilities Removal Act, 1850 laid down that no person shall lose any right of inheritance by renouncing his religion. It was repealed in 2018 as obsolete, but under the General Clauses Act a repeal does not revive a rule not in force at the time of repeal, so the old bar does not return. A Muslim who converts therefore does not lose his right to inherit from his Muslim relatives. The protection covers only the person who renounces his religion: a relative who was never a Muslim does not become an heir under Muslim law.

The Order of Payment out of the Estate

1. Funeral expenses.
2. Debts, including any unpaid dower owed to the widow.
3. Legacies, up to one-third of what remains after funeral expenses and debts, unless the heirs consent to more.

Only the balance is divided among the heirs. The estate passes to the heirs at once on death, but each heir is liable for the deceased's debts only up to the value of his share.

The Three Classes of Hanafi Heirs

1. Sharers (Quranic heirs): take fixed fractions and are always served first.
2. Residuaries: take whatever remains after the sharers.
3. Distant kindred: blood relatives who are neither sharers nor residuaries; they inherit only when there is no sharer and no residuary, except a husband or wife.

The twelve sharers

Male (4)	Female (8)
Husband, father, true grandfather, uterine brother	Wife, mother, true grandmother, daughter, son's daughter, full sister, consanguine sister, uterine sister

• True grandfather: a male ancestor with no female link, e.g. the father's father.
• False grandfather: a male ancestor linked through a female, e.g. the mother's father.
• True grandmother: a female ancestor with no false grandfather in between, e.g. the father's mother and the mother's mother.
• Consanguine sister: same father, different mother.
• Uterine brother or sister: same mother, different father.

The Shares of the Sharers

Learn the shares in pairs and groups, with the one condition that changes each share.

Spouses

Sharer	No child and no child of a son (how low soever)	With a child or child of a son
Husband	1/2	1/4
Wife (several wives share equally)	1/4	1/8

A daughter's child does not reduce a spouse's share; only a child or a child of a son does.

Parents

• Father: 1/6 as a sharer when there is a child or child of a son. With no child and no child of a son, he is not a sharer but a residuary. With only daughters or son's daughters, he takes in both capacities: 1/6 as sharer plus the remainder as residuary.
• Mother: 1/6 when there is a child or child of a son, or two or more brothers or sisters of any kind; otherwise 1/3 (subject to the Umariyyatain exception below).

Grandparents

• True grandfather: takes the father's place, with the same shares, when there is no father.
• True grandmother: 1/6, shared if there are two. A maternal grandmother is excluded by the mother; a paternal grandmother by the mother or the father.

Descendants

• Daughter: 1/2 alone; two or more take 2/3. With a son, she becomes a residuary with her brother and takes half as much as he does.
• Son's daughter: 1/2, or 2/3 if two or more, only when there is no son and no daughter. With one daughter, son's daughters take 1/6, completing the 2/3 the Quran allows to female descendants. Excluded by a son, and by two or more daughters unless a son's son of her own or a lower degree makes her a residuary.

Sisters

• Full sister: 1/2, or 2/3 if two or more, when there is no child, child of a son, father, true grandfather or full brother. With a full brother she becomes a residuary, taking half as much as he does. With a daughter or son's daughter, she becomes a residuary along with her and takes what remains after the sharers, provided there is no son, son's son, father or true grandfather (each of whom excludes the sister).
• Consanguine sister: same pattern as the full sister when there is no full sister. With one full sister she takes 1/6, completing 2/3. Excluded by a full brother, and by two or more full sisters unless a consanguine brother is present.

Uterine brother and sister

One alone takes 1/6; two or more together take 1/3, males and females sharing equally. They are excluded by a child, a child of a son, the father and the true grandfather.

The Residuaries

The main residuaries are male relatives connected to the deceased only through males, taking in this order:

1. Descendants: son, then son's son, however low.
2. Ascendants: father, then true grandfather.
3. Descendants of the father: full brother, consanguine brother, then their sons.
4. Descendants of the true grandfather: paternal uncles and their sons.

Some women become residuaries with a male of the same degree, the male taking double: the daughter with the son, the son's daughter with the son's son, the full sister with the full brother, and the consanguine sister with the consanguine brother. A full or consanguine sister also becomes a residuary along with a daughter.

Method of Solving a Hanafi Problem

1. Deduct funeral expenses, debts and valid legacies.
2. List every living relative and strike out those excluded.
3. Give each sharer his or her share, applying the conditions that raise or lower it.
4. Give the remainder to the residuaries.
5. Check the total: if it exceeds the whole, apply the doctrine of increase; if it is less and there is no residuary, apply the doctrine of return.
6. Express every share over a common denominator and verify the total is one.

Exclusion in Practice

The Two Special Cases of the Mother (Umariyyatain)

The mother's one-third has one exception, in two situations called the Umariyyatain cases because they were decided by the second Caliph, Umar. Where the deceased leaves only a husband, father and mother, or only a wife, father and mother, the mother takes one-third of what remains after the spouse's share, not one-third of the whole.

Reason: if the husband took 1/2 and the mother 1/3 of the whole, the father would get only 1/6, half the mother's share, contradicting the principle that a male takes double a female of the same degree.

Heirs	Spouse	Mother	Father (residuary)
Husband, father, mother	1/2	1/3 of 1/2 = 1/6	1/3
Wife, father, mother	1/4	1/3 of 3/4 = 1/4	1/2

The Doctrine of Increase (Aul)

When the sharers' fixed shares add up to more than the whole, the Hanafi solution is aul: the denominator is increased so that every sharer's share is reduced in the same proportion.

Doctrine of increase: the classic example

Under the Hanafi doctrine of increase, when the fixed shares add up to more than the whole, the denominator is raised so that every sharer's share is reduced in the same proportion. A famous example comes from early Islamic history.

Heir	Quranic share	Over 24	After increase
Widow	1/8	3/24	3/27 = 1/9
Two daughters (together)	2/3	16/24	16/27
Father	1/6	4/24	4/27
Mother	1/6	4/24	4/27
Total		27/24	27/27

The widow's 1/8 has become 1/9.

Doctrine of return (radd)

The opposite situation arises when the shares add up to less than the whole, and there is no residuary to take the surplus. The Hanafi solution is called radd, the doctrine of return. The surplus is returned to the sharers in proportion to their shares.

Return where there is no spouse

Return where a spouse is present

Distant kindred

The distant kindred inherit only when there is no sharer and no residuary, apart from a husband or wife. They include:

• the children of daughters;
• the children of sisters;
• maternal grandfathers;
• maternal uncles and aunts; and
• similar relatives.

They are arranged in four classes, and a nearer class excludes a remoter one:

1. descendants of the deceased;
2. ascendants;
3. descendants of the parents; and
4. descendants of the grandparents.

The Shia system of inheritance

Shia law does not divide heirs into sharers, residuaries and distant kindred in the same way as Hanafi law. Instead, it arranges all blood relatives into three classes.

The three classes of heirs

• Class I: the parents, and the children and other lineal descendants, however low.
• Class II: the grandparents, however high, and the brothers and sisters and their descendants, however low.
• Class III: the paternal and maternal uncles and aunts, and their descendants.

Within this framework, Shia law still gives the Quranic shares to the sharers, and the remainder goes to the nearest relatives of the class.

Four big differences from Hanafi law

Point	Hanafi law	Shia law
1. Grandchildren inheriting where no child of the deceased is alive	No division by branches; a daughter's son, for example, is only a distant kindred (see Problem 4 below)	Division by branches: the grandchildren in each branch take, between them, the share their parent would have taken
2. Shares exceed the whole	Doctrine of increase: every sharer is reduced proportionately	No doctrine of increase: the shortfall is borne only by the daughters, or by the full or consanguine sisters; the spouse and the parents are paid in full
3. Spouse, father and mother	Umariyatain rule: the mother takes 1/3 of the remainder	No Umariyatain rule: the mother takes 1/3 of the whole estate
4. Return	The spouse is excluded while any other sharer or distant kindred exists	Its own rules of return (below)

The Shia doctrine of return

• The surplus returns to the sharers in proportion to their shares, and the father shares in it as a sharer.
• The husband or wife takes no part of the return while any other heir exists.
• A husband who is the only heir takes the whole estate.
• For a widow who is the only heir, the older Shia view sent the surplus to the State, but the Oudh Chief Court has allowed her to take the whole.
• In one special situation the mother is kept out of the return: where the deceased leaves a father, a mother, one daughter, and two or more full or consanguine brothers, or a group of such sisters (counting two sisters as one brother).
• Uterine brothers and sisters get no part of the return when a full sister is present.

The childless Shia widow and land

A Shia widow who has no child by the deceased does not inherit any share in his land. She takes her share in the value of buildings, trees and movable property, but not in the land itself.

Comparing the Hanafi and Shia systems

Examiners usually test this topic through numerical problems.

Problem 1: a daughter, a father and a mother

Hanafi law: the daughter takes 1/2, the mother 1/6, and the father 1/6 as a sharer, making 5/6. The father is also the residuary, so he takes the remaining 1/6 as well, making 1/3 in all.

Shia law: the father is only a sharer here, because there is a child. After the shares (1/2, 1/6, 1/6), the surplus of 1/6 returns to all three in proportion, 3 : 1 : 1.

Heir	Hanafi	Shia
Daughter	1/2	3/5
Father	1/3	1/5
Mother	1/6	1/5

Problem 2: a husband, a father and a mother

Hanafi law: this is an Umariyatain case. The husband takes 1/2, the mother 1/6 and the father 1/3.

Shia law: the husband takes 1/2, the mother takes 1/3 of the whole, and the father takes the remaining 1/6. The mother gets more than the father under Shia law.

Problem 3: a widow, two daughters, a father and a mother

Hanafi law: this is the example in which increase applies (widow 3/27, daughters 16/27, father and mother 4/27 each).

Shia law: there is no increase. The widow takes her full 1/8 (3/24), and the father and mother take their full 1/6 each (4/24 each). That makes 11/24. The two daughters bear the shortfall and take the remaining 13/24, instead of 16/24.

Problem 4: a son's daughter and a daughter's son (all children predeceased)

Hanafi law: the son's daughter is a sharer and takes 1/2. The daughter's son is only a distant kindred, and distant kindred take nothing while a sharer is present, so the remaining half returns to the son's daughter. She takes the whole estate.

Shia law: each grandchild takes through his or her parent. The son's branch takes what a son would take, and the daughter's branch takes what a daughter would take, in the ratio 2 : 1. The son's daughter takes 2/3 and the daughter's son 1/3.

Recent developments

• As of October 2026, several petitions are pending in the Supreme Court. Some ask whether the rule giving Muslim women half the share of men, and the Shariat Act itself, can be tested against the Constitution. Others ask whether a person born a Muslim may choose to be governed by the Indian Succession Act. None has been decided.
• In Uttarakhand, the Uniform Civil Code, in force since 27 January 2025, governs succession among all residents of the state, including Muslims, but not members of the Scheduled Tribes. It gives equal shares to men and women.

Answering problem questions on Muslim inheritance

A problem question on Muslim inheritance usually gives a family and asks for the estate to be distributed under Hanafi law, Shia law, or both.

The Indian Succession Act, 1925

Hindus and Muslims have their own laws of succession. The succession of Christians, Parsis and others is governed by the Indian Succession Act, 1925, which consolidated earlier laws. The Act does two jobs:

• Part V deals with intestate succession, that is, succession when there is no will.
• Part VI deals with wills, that is, testamentary succession.

Whose property Part V governs

Section 29 says that Part V does not apply to the intestate property of a Hindu, Muslim, Buddhist, Sikh or Jain. The intestate rules of Part V therefore apply mainly to Christians, Parsis and Jews, and to persons whose succession the Act governs for some other reason.

Two sets of rules within Part V

Sections	Apply to
Sections 31 to 49	Everyone except Parsis; in practice, the rules for Christians
Sections 50 to 56	Parsis only

For deaths on or after 27 January 2025, the Uniform Civil Code of Uttarakhand displaces these rules for residents of that state, except members of the Scheduled Tribes.

Kindred and consanguinity

The Christian rules use the idea of kindred, which means blood relatives. Sections 24 to 28 explain how kinship is measured.

Lineal consanguinity	Collateral consanguinity
Relationship between persons descended one from the other in a straight line	Relationship between persons who come from the same stock but not from one another
Example: father, son and grandson	Example: brothers, or cousins

• Section 27 makes no distinction between relatives of full blood and half blood. Under the Christian rules, a half brother takes the same share as a full brother.
• The same section treats a child in the womb at the time of the death, who is later born alive, as if born before the death.
• Section 28 requires degrees of kinship to be counted by the table in the First Schedule.

Mary Roy and the Travancore Christian Succession Act

This case shows how the Act reached a community that once followed a very different rule.

Intestate succession among Christians

The Christian rules are built on one basic idea: the surviving spouse takes a fixed fraction first, and the rest goes to the kindred.

Share of the widow and widower (Sections 33 to 35)

Intestate leaves	Widow takes	The rest goes to
Widow and lineal descendants	1/3	Lineal descendants (2/3)
Widow, no lineal descendants, but other kindred	1/2	Kindred (1/2)
Widow and no kindred at all	Whole	Nil

• Section 33 gives the widow's share, as in the table.
• Section 33A gives some widows who have no lineal descendants a first claim of Rs 5,000, but it expressly does not apply to Indian Christians. For an Indian Christian family, Section 33 applies as it stands.
• Section 35 gives a widower the same rights in his wife's property as a widow has in her husband's property.
• Section 34: where there is no widow, the whole property goes to the lineal descendants or, failing them, to the kindred; if there is no kindred either, it goes to the Government.

Distribution among lineal descendants (Sections 37 to 40)

Intestate leaves	Rule
Only children	They share equally
No child, only grandchildren	They share equally, however many came from each child (Section 38)
Only great-grandchildren or remoter descendants, all in the same degree	They share equally
Descendants not all in the same degree	Division by branches, per stirpes (Section 40)

Under per stirpes division, each living child takes one share, and the share of a child who died before the intestate goes to the descendants of that child.

Section 49: gifts the intestate made to a child during his lifetime, for the child's advancement in life, are not deducted from that child's share.

Where there are no lineal descendants (Sections 41 to 48)

After the widow's share is taken out, the rest goes as follows:

1. If the father is alive, he takes the whole of what remains (Section 42).
2. If the father is dead, the mother, the brothers and the sisters share equally, and the children of a dead brother or sister take the share their parent would have taken.
3. If there is only the mother, she takes the whole.
4. If both parents are dead, the brothers and sisters share equally, with the children of a dead brother or sister taking by representation.
5. If none of these exist, the property goes to the nearest kindred, in equal shares.

Solving Christian problems

Widow and children

Widow and other kindred

Descendants in different degrees

The trap: descendants in the same degree

A woman's estate

Intestate succession among Parsis

The Parsi rules are in Sections 50 to 56. Their most important feature is that the parents of the intestate also take a share along with the spouse and the children.

Removal of inequality in 1991

Before 1991 (estate of a Parsi man)	After the 1991 amendment
The widow and each son took double the share of each daughter	Sons and daughters take equally
The father took half the share of a son; the mother took half the share of a daughter	Fathers and mothers take equally

The Indian Succession Amendment Act, 1991, which came into force on 9 December 1991, removed this inequality.

Section 51: the basic rule

Section 53: a child who died before the intestate

Predeceased son	Predeceased daughter
His share goes to his widow and children, as if he had died just after the intestate	Her share goes only to her children, in equal shares; her husband takes nothing from it

Solving Parsi problems

The unit method

Heir	Units	Share
Widow	1	1/4
Son	1	1/4
Daughter	1	1/4
Father	1/2	1/8
Mother	1/2	1/8
Total	4	3/4 + 1/8 + 1/8 = whole

Only one parent alive

Estate of a Parsi woman

No lineal descendants: Section 54

If a Parsi leaves no lineal descendant and leaves a widow, she takes 1/2, and the rest goes to his relatives in the order set out in Part I of the Second Schedule, whose first entry is the father and the mother.

The same family under Christian and Parsi rules

If Hansa had been a Christian, her husband would have taken 1/3 and the two children 1/3 each, which happens to give the same result. But if both her parents were alive, a Christian husband and children would still take everything, while under the Parsi rule her parents would also share.

Wills under the Indian Succession Act

Application of Part VI

Part VI of the Act governs the wills of Christians and Parsis, and, through Section 57, the wills of Hindus, Buddhists, Sikhs and Jains as well. It does not govern the wills of Muslims, who follow their own law.

Capacity, free agency and revocation

• Section 59: every person of sound mind who is not a minor may dispose of his property by will.
• Section 61: a will obtained by fraud or coercion, or by such importunity as takes away the free agency of the testator, is void.
• Section 62: a will may be revoked or altered by the testator at any time while he is competent to make a will.

Execution of an ordinary will: Section 63

1. The testator must sign or put his mark on the will, or someone else must sign it in his presence and by his direction.
2. The signature must be so placed that it appears to give effect to the writing as a will.
3. The will must be attested by two or more witnesses.
4. Each witness must have seen the testator sign, or must have received from him a personal acknowledgement of his signature.
5. Each witness must sign in the presence of the testator.

Revocation by marriage and privileged wills

• Section 69: the marriage of a Christian or a Parsi revokes a will made earlier. This rule does not apply to the will of a Hindu, Buddhist, Sikh or Jain.
• Privileged wills: soldiers, airmen and mariners on actual service enjoy a relaxation of these formalities.

Proof of a will

Since the testator is no longer alive when a will is challenged, courts look carefully at its proof.

Bequests for religious or charitable purposes: Section 118

Probate: omission of Section 213

Section 213 of the Act once required probate before an executor or a legatee could establish rights under certain wills in court. Parliament omitted that section by the Repealing and Amending Act, 2025. Probate is therefore no longer a precondition anywhere in India, although it can still be obtained.

A ten-step method for numerical problems

Four different systems of succession (Hindu, Muslim, Christian and Parsi) can all be handled by one method:

1. Identify the nature of the property. Is it coparcenary property of a Mitakshara family, or separate property? Is it the property of a man or of a woman? For a Hindu woman, where did the property come from?
2. Identify the governing law: Hindu law, Hanafi law, Shia law, the Christian rules or the Parsi rules.
3. Build the family tree on paper, marking every person who is alive and every person who died before the deceased.
4. Identify who is legally entitled, and strike out those who are excluded, for example by a nearer heir, by a disqualification, or by the rule that the father is only a Class II heir under Hindu law.
5. Identify the event that triggers the division and its date, such as a death before or after 9 September 2005, or a partition by registered deed.
6. Apply the rule of that system:
   • for a coparcener, first conduct the notional or deemed partition;
   • for a Hindu intestate, apply Section 10 branch by branch;
   • for a Muslim, give the sharers their shares and the residuaries the rest;
   • for a Christian, take out the spouse's fraction first;
   • for a Parsi with children, count in units, with half a unit for each living parent.
7. Calculate the shares stage by stage, multiplying fractions while moving down a branch.
8. Convert everything to a common denominator and simplify.
9. Check that the total is exactly one. If it is more than one in a Hanafi problem, apply increase. If it is less than one with no residuary, apply return.
10. State the conclusion clearly, naming each heir and the share, with the section or doctrine that supports it.

One family, five laws

A man dies leaving his widow, one son, one daughter and his mother. He leaves no will and no debts.

• Hindu, separate property: all four are Class I heirs and take one share each, 1/4 each.
• Hindu coparcener in a Mitakshara family, death after 9 September 2005: first conduct the deemed partition among him, his son and his daughter. Following the Gurupad method, the widow also takes a share in it as the wife, so each of the four gets 1/4. His own 1/4 then goes to his four Class I heirs (widow, son, daughter and mother), 1/16 each. Out of the whole joint family property, the widow, the son and the daughter end up with 5/16 each, and the mother with 1/16.
• Sunni Muslim: the widow takes 1/8 and the mother 1/6, because there is a child, making 7/24. The son and the daughter divide the remaining 17/24 in the ratio 2 : 1, so the son gets 17/36 and the daughter 17/72. A Shia calculation gives the same result in this family, because there is no increase, no return and no representation question.
• Christian: the widow takes 1/3, and the son and the daughter 1/3 each. The mother gets nothing, because lineal descendants exclude her.
• Parsi: the widow, the son and the daughter take one unit each and the mother half a unit; 3½ units make each unit 2/7, so the mother gets 1/7.

Law	Widow	Son	Daughter	Mother
Hindu (separate property)	1/4	1/4	1/4	1/4
Hindu (Mitakshara coparcener)	5/16	5/16	5/16	1/16
Sunni (same under Shia)	1/8	17/36	17/72	1/6
Christian	1/3	1/3	1/3	Nil
Parsi	2/7	2/7	2/7	1/7

Leading cases in brief

Hindu joint family

Case	Proposition to remember
Chander Sen; Uttam	Property inherited under Section 8 after 1956 is separate property
Arshnoor Singh	Property inherited before the Act remains coparcenary property
Hunoomanpersaud Panday	Legal necessity and the honest inquiry by the buyer
Brij Narain	Antecedent debts
Govindram Sugar Mills	A widowed mother cannot be karta
Sujata Sharma	A woman who was the eldest coparcener could become karta
Thamma Venkata Subbamma	Rule against gifts of an undivided interest
Guramma	A reasonable gift to a daughter
Raghavamma; Puttrangamma	Severance by a communicated declaration
Bhagwan Dayal	Reunion
Gurupad	Notional partition
Vineeta Sharma	The daughter as a coparcener by birth
Revanasiddappa	Children of void marriages

Hindu Succession Act

Case	Proposition to remember
Tulasamma	Wide reading of Section 14(1)
Omprakash	Strict order of heirs of a childless widow
Arunachala Gounder	Return of property to its source
Vellikannu	Nobody can inherit through a murderer
Cherotte Sugathan	Remarriage after succession
Babu Ram; Mahinder	Preferential right over agricultural land
Kamla Neti; Ram Charan	Tribal daughters

Muslim transfers and inheritance

Case	Proposition to remember
Hafeeza Bibi	The unregistered written gift
Mahboob Sahab; Abdul Rahim	Delivery of possession in a gift
Abul Fata	The family wakf, and its reversal by statute
Interim order of September 2025	On the Waqf Amendment Act
Gobind Dayal; Bishan Singh	Pre-emption as a right of substitution
Audh Behari Singh	Pre-emption by custom
Bhau Ram; Atam Prakash	Constitutional limits on pre-emption
Gulam Abbas	Estoppel against an heir who gave up his expectancy for money
Mir Isub	Return to a widow who is the sole heir
Aga Mahomed Jaffer	The Shia childless widow

Christians, Parsis and wills

Case	Proposition to remember
Mary Roy	Repeal of the Travancore Act gave Syrian Christian daughters equal rights
Venkatachala Iyengar	Proof of a will
John Vallamattom	Section 118 struck down

Key provisions in brief

Hindu Succession Act

Provision	Subject
Section 6	Coparcenary property, with the 2005 rules on daughters, deemed partition, pious obligation, the saving of partitions before 20 December 2004, and the meaning of partition
Section 8	Order of Class I, Class II, agnates and cognates
Section 9	Order of preference
Section 10	Four rules of distribution among Class I heirs
Sections 11 to 13	Class II heirs, agnates and cognates
Section 14	A woman as full owner of her property; sub-section (2) as the exception
Sections 15 and 16	Succession to a woman, including the source rule
Sections 18 to 21	Full and half blood; succession per capita as tenants in common; the child in the womb; simultaneous deaths
Section 22	Preferential right of Class I heirs
Sections 25 to 28	Disqualifications
Section 29	Escheat
Section 30	Wills

Muslim law

• Section 2 of the Shariat Act, with its exclusion of agricultural land.
• Section 129 of the Transfer of Property Act, for gifts.
• For wakf: the Mussalman Wakf Validating Act, 1913, and the Waqf Act, 1995, as amended in 2025.

Christians and Parsis (Indian Succession Act)

• Section 29: scope of Part V.
• Sections 31 to 49: Christians.
• Sections 50 to 56: Parsis.
• Sections 59 to 63: wills.

Distinctions to keep clear

Concept	Contrasted with
Joint family: the wider group	Coparcenary: the smaller group that owns the property by birth
Severance of status: fixes the shares	Division by metes and bounds: physically divides the property
Survivorship: sends a dead coparcener's interest to the surviving coparceners	Succession: sends it to his own heirs
Agnate: related wholly through males	Cognate: related through at least one female
Half-blood brother: shares only the father	Uterine brother: shares only the mother
Section 14(1): enlarges a woman's estate	Section 14(2): preserves a restricted estate created as a new right
Hiba: needs possession but has no limit, unless made in a death illness	Wasiyat: needs no possession but is limited to 1/3
Increase: reduces everyone when the shares are too large	Return: enlarges the shares of non-spouse sharers when they are too small

Amendments that changed the law

1. Hindu Succession Amendment Act, 2005: made daughters coparceners, replaced survivorship with succession, abolished pious obligation for new debts, added four Class I heirs, and omitted Sections 23 and 24 and sub-section (2) of Section 4.
2. Mussalman Wakf Validating Act, 1913: reversed the Privy Council and validated the family wakf.
3. Waqf Amendment Act, 2025: made wide changes to the creation and administration of wakf, some of which are under challenge in the Supreme Court.
4. Parsi rules, amended in 1991: removed the inequality between sons and daughters.
5. Repealing and Amending Act, 2025: omitted Section 213 of the Indian Succession Act, so probate is no longer a precondition for any will.

Common mistakes to avoid

• Dividing Hindu property before deciding whether it is coparcenary or separate.
• Forgetting the date of death, which decides which version of Section 6 applies.
• Forgetting the widow's own share in a notional partition.
• Placing the widow of a predeceased son at the top level.
• Giving the father of a Hindu male a share when any Class I heir, such as his mother, is alive.
• In Muslim law, in either school, giving a grandson a share while a son of the deceased is alive.
• Sharing the return with a spouse, unless the spouse is the only heir.
• Finishing a numerical problem without checking that the shares add up to the whole.

Quick revision

• Muslim law knows no birth right, no joint family, and no representation that lets a grandchild inherit alongside a living son of the deceased.
• Hanafi heirs are sharers, residuaries and distant kindred, served in that order; the shares of spouses, parents and descendants change with one or two conditions, learnt as pairs.
• Increase reduces everyone proportionately when the shares are too large; return gives the surplus to the sharers other than the spouse when they are too small.
• Shia law groups heirs into three classes, divides by branches among grandchildren who inherit, rejects increase and the Umariyatain rule, and has its own rules of return.
• Part V of the Indian Succession Act governs intestate succession among Christians, Parsis and others, not Hindus, Muslims, Buddhists, Sikhs or Jains.
• A Christian widow takes 1/3 with lineal descendants, 1/2 with other kindred, and everything if there is no kindred; a widower has the same rights. Descendants share equally in the same degree, and by branches if not.
• Among Parsis, the spouse and each child share equally, and each living parent takes half a child's share.
• Part VI, directly or through Section 57, governs the wills of everyone except Muslims; Section 63 requires signature and attestation by at least two witnesses.
• Family Law II runs from the Hindu joint family and its coparcenary, through the Hindu Succession Act and the Muslim law of gifts, wills, wakf, pre-emption and inheritance, to succession among Christians and Parsis.
• Three exam habits: identify the governing law and the nature of the property first; build the family tree before calculating; show every step, from the first share to the final check.