Daughter in law's rights on father in law's property
12-Oct-2023 (In Property Law)
As per the description, your family would be a Hindu Undivided Family and the laws applicable to the same will be applicable to you. A Hindu Undivided Family (HUF) has been defined as a group comprising more than one person, all lineal descendant of a common ancestor, under the Hindu law. People of Hindu, Jain, Sikh or Buddhist faith can form a HUF as per the Hindu law.
In a recent judgment of the Supreme Court, it has reiterated that all assets belonging to a HUF would be presumed to be joint property. Under the Hindu property laws, a property belonging to a HUF holds a share for everyone in a joint Hindu family, equally. Only self-acquired property cannot be claimed by members of the undivided family before the death of the ancestor or before such right is accrued on any member by way of a Will.
The questions enlisted in the description have been discussed below:
Daughter in Law’s rights in father-in-laws property
As per the Indian property laws, daughter-in-law does not have a right over the property of the father-in-law, either ancestral or self-acquired. However, a daughter-in-law do have property rights over husband’s property after his demise. Section 10 in The Hindu Succession Act, 1956 talks about the distribution of the property in situation where a husband dies intestate (without leaving a will) and says that distribution of property shall take place among the heirs in class I of the Schedule wherein the Rule 1 specifically states that the intestate’s widow, or if there are more widows than one, all the widows together shall take one share.
For instance, if a husband dies intestate and is survived by two widows and a son, heirs in Class I shall take the property simultaneously and to the exclusion of all others. Here according to the provisions of Rule 1 of section 10, both the widows of the husband shall take one-half share in the property of the husband and the other half shall go to his son.
In situations where a husband dies intestate leaving two widows and no sons, both of them shall inherit the property equally, i.e. both of them shall be entitled to one-half share, there being no other Class I heir.
Grandson’s rights in the property of Grandfather
A grandson’s rights in his grandfather’s property depends on the nature of the property whether the property is an ancestral property or it is a Self – acquired property. If the property is an ancestral property, the grandchild has equal share in the same. He can file a civil suit for declaration and partition along-with petition for interim relief. Rights over ancestral property are protected by law cannot be denied.
A grandchild does not have any birth right in the self- acquired property of his grandfather. The grandfather can transfer the property to whoever he desires. If the Grandfather dies without leaving any will, then also his immediate legal heirs i.e. his wife, son(s) and daughter(s) will have right to inherit the property left behind by him.
In case any son or daughter of the grandfather dies before his death, then the legal heir of the predeceased son or daughter will get the share which the predeceased son or daughter would have got. The grandchild of the grandfather shall be entitled to get a share of his/her predeceased father only but if the father is alive then she/he is not entitled to any share.
Who can claim a right over father’s property and can such property be distributed by the father?
Under the Hindu Succession Act, Children as a coparcener have certain rights over their father’s ancestral property including right of share in the property by birth; a right to survivorship (if one coparcener dies the property gets divided among the rest) and so on. The children have a right to take or sell their share of the property to anyone they want. In case any of the son or daughter has died, the immediate legal heir (wife in case of a son and daughter’s children in case of a daughter) can claim the right in the property.
However, a right in the self-acquired property can only be claimed if such right has been created by the father by way of a will or if the father has died intestate (without leaving a will). Also, the ancestral property cannot be given away by the father as there exist a birth right of all the legal heirs in it. However, the self-acquired property of the father can be transferred by him to any third person.
Grounds on which legal heirs can be denied their share in the ancestral property
Legal heirs to an ancestral property have a birth right to inherit a share in the property. However, under the Hindu Succession Act, there are certain grounds under which legal heirs can be denied their share in the ancestral property. These are:
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In case a Hindu ceases to be a Hindu by conversion to another religion. Moreover, children born to him after such conversion and their descendants will be disqualified from inheriting the property of their Hindu relatives, unless such children or descendants are Hindus at the time when the succession is taking place.
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If a person has committed a murder or has abetted the commission of a murder then he shall be disqualified from inheriting the property of the person murdered, or any other property in furtherance of the succession to which he or she committed or abetted the commission of the murder.
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