Indian law still governs Indian-situs assets
An NRI's residence in Kuwait does not change which Indian law governs their assets located in
India. The Hindu Succession Act, 1956 applies to Hindus, Sikhs, Jains and Buddhists, and the Indian
Succession Act, 1925 applies to Christians, Parsis and other communities not covered by a separate
personal law; Muslims are separately governed by Muslim personal law for succession in India.
Immovable property in India is governed by Indian law by virtue of its location, irrespective of the
NRI's Kuwait residence, and an Indian court exercises jurisdiction to grant probate or letters of
administration over that property regardless of where the deceased was domiciled at death. Movable
assets such as Indian bank deposits, demat holdings, and mutual fund units are generally also
administered under Indian succession law and Indian procedural rules, even though the NRI heir applying
for transmission may be doing so from Kuwait, which typically means routing documents through the
Indian Embassy in Kuwait for attestation before they can be used with Indian banks or registrars.
Kuwait's Sharia-based succession framework
Kuwait's own succession law is Sharia-based, embedded within its Personal Status Law (Law No. 51 of
1984), with a separate personal status law applying to the Shia community for matters including
inheritance shares among that community. Forced-heirship principles apply for Kuwait-situs assets, with
fixed shares for prescribed heirs -- spouse, children, and, depending on the composition of surviving
relatives, parents and siblings -- calculated under Sharia rules rather than by the free choice of the
deceased, which can differ substantially from the distribution an Indian will would otherwise direct.
No dedicated non-Muslim wills registry comparable to Dubai's DIFC Wills Service Centre has been
identified for Kuwait -- NRIs with Kuwait-held assets, including local bank accounts, vehicles, or
business interests, should consult a Kuwait-licensed lawyer to confirm the current mechanism for
registering or probating a will locally, rather than assume a UAE-style registry or process is
available.
The standard planning recommendation
As with other Gulf jurisdictions, the well-supported recommendation for NRIs holding assets in both
India and Kuwait is to execute separate, jurisdiction-specific wills -- one for India-situs assets
under Indian law, and one addressing Kuwait-situs assets after local legal advice -- drafted so that
neither inadvertently revokes the other, since a will intended for one jurisdiction can otherwise
complicate or delay administration of assets in the other if it contains a general revocation clause
covering “all previous wills.” It is also generally advisable to keep an updated list of
Kuwait-held assets, account numbers, and nominee details accessible to family members in India, since
the practical difficulty for NRI heirs is often less about the applicable law and more about simply
locating and proving entitlement to assets held in a jurisdiction the heirs may never have visited,
especially where documents need consular attestation before Indian authorities will act on them.
