Inheritance of Property in India

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Inheritance is defined as a practice of transferring of properties, title, deeds, debts, rights and obligation to the legal heir of the person who holds the property after his death by way of will or by way of succession. Laws of succession incorporate the legal principles of division or distribution of the property of a deceased either by way of will or by way of succession.

The laws of succession for Hindus are codified in the Hindu Succession law. The Hindu succession Act 1956 is applicable to Hindus, Jains, Buddhists, and Sikhs. The property will pass to the Class I heirs and if there is no class I heir the share passes to the Class II and so on:

Class I heirs:

• Son

• Daughter

• Mother of the intestate

The heirs of pre-deceased children of the intestate (which shall include the widow, sons, daughters of the predeceased children as well)

Class II Heirs:

• Father

• Grand Parents

• Grand Children

• Brother

• Sister

• Other relatives

Inheritance and succession under Muslim Law is governed by Muslim Personal Law . Inheritance under Muslim personal law is managed by the two ways i.e. per capita Distribution and per strip distribution. Unlike the Hindu succession law, under the Muslim law, illegitimate child has no right. This law governs two types of heirs which are sharers and residuary. Sharers have a right of certain share in the deceased property & residuary are entitled to share left by the sharers. Sharers include Husband, Wife, Daughter, Daughter of a son (or son’s son or son’s son and so on), Father, Paternal Grandfather, Mother etc.

Rights of Christians & Parsis are governed under the Indian Succession Act, 1925. The law of inheritance for the Christians is equal for both men and women. As per the Indian Succession act Christians recognizes three types of heirs that are spouse, Lineal Descendants and Kindred. Lineal descendants heir is born out of lawful marriage and kindred are those who are related by blood through a lawful marriage. Illegitimate child has no right of inheritance under the

Act. As for Christian inheritance, no such list of heirs has been mentioned under the Indian Succession Act, 1925 but it provides the portion of property to be given to every heir after the death of the person.

(This article is written by Monnishaa Mahajan, Principal Attorney at Legal Help NRI and an Expert in NRI Matters.)