09-07-2025
- Politics
- New Indian Express
Daughters in Hindu families have equal rights to ancestral property: Kerala HC
KOCHI: The Kerala High Court has held that the daughter of a person from Hindu community, who passed away after December 2004 in the state, is entitled to an equal share in the ancestral property.
The court also ruled that Sections 3 and 4 of the Kerala Joint Hindu Family System (Abolition) Act 1975, which deny such rights, are contrary to Section 6 of the Hindu Succession (Amendment) Act 2005 and therefore cannot prevail.
Section 3 of the former Act states that no person can claim birthright in ancestral property, while Section 4 declares that a Hindu Undivided Family (HUF) in Kerala is deemed to have been partitioned and converted into a tenancy-in-common. Section 6 of the Hindu Succession (Amendment) Act 2005 says that a daughter by birth becomes a coparcener in her own right in the same manner as a son.
The court made it clear that the State Act prevents any person from claiming a right by birth. But the Central legislation enables a daughter to claim such a right.
The court issued its order based on a petition filed by N P Rajani and her three sisters from Kozhikode, who sought their rightful share in the HUF property after their father died in 2005. Their brother, citing a will executed by the father in his favour argued that her claim was barred by the 1975 Kerala Joint Hindu Family System (Abolition) Act, which abolished the joint family system in the state.
