In a major judgment, the Supreme Court of India, on Tuesday said that daughters have right over parental property even if the coparcener had died prior to the date when Hindu Succession (Amendment) Act, 2005 came into force. The significant judgment was pronounced by a three-judge bench of the apex court headed by Justice Arun Mishra.
The judgment implies that daughters will have the right over parental property even if the coparcener had died before the Hindu Succession (Amendment) Act, 2005 came into effect. The bench pronounced the judgment while hearing a bunch of appeals questioning whether the Hindu Succession (Amendment) Act, 2005, had a retrospective effect. The Hindu Succession (Amendment) Act 2005 gave equal rights to daughters in ancestral property.
A daughter remains a loving daughter throughout life: Justice Arun Mishra “Daughters must be given equal rights as sons, Daughter remains a loving daughter throughout life. The daughter shall remain a coparcener throughout life, irrespective of whether her father is alive or not,” Justice Arun Mishra was quoted as saying by Livelaw. The bench held that the said amendment is applicable to ‘living daughters of living coparceners as on 9 September 2005’, irrespective of the date when the daughters are born.
Removing the gender bias in the legal system, the amendment in the Act had made sure that ‘in a Joint Hindu family governed by the Mitakshara law, the daughter of a coparcener shall by birth become a coparcener in her own right in the same manner as the son, have the same rights in the coparcenary property as she would have had if she had been a son; and is allotted the same share as is allotted to a son’.