SC Tuesday held that daughters will have equal rights in ancestral property as sons even if their father died before the Hindu Succession (Amendment) Act 2005 came into force.
New Delhi: In a landmark judgment Tuesday, the Supreme Court held that daughters will have equal coparcenary rights in Hindu Undivided Family properties, irrespective of whether the father was alive or not on 9 September 2005, when an amendment came into force.
Asserting that this right under Section 6 of the Hindu Succession Act, 1956, is acquired by birth, the bench, comprising Justices Arun Mishra, S. Abdul Nazeer and M.R. Shah, observed, “The provisions contained in substituted section 6 of the Hindu Succession Act, 1956 confer status of coparcener on the daughter born before or after amendment in the same manner as son with same rights and liabilities.”
The court was dealing with an interpretation of Section 6 of the Hindu Succession Act, 1956, after it was amended in 2005. The amendment gave equal rights to daughters in ancestral property.
ThePrint explains what coparcenary means, what did the 2005 amendment say and what the Supreme Court said in its judgment.❐
