Intestate Succession in India

Section 8 -- the order of succession for a Hindu male dying intestate

Under Section 8 of the Hindu Succession Act, 1956, a Hindu male's property devolves in a strict order: first to Class I heirs, who take simultaneously and equally; only if no Class I heir survives does the estate move to Class II heirs, taken in nine sequential entries with each entry fully exhausted before the next is considered; failing that, to agnates (relatives traced entirely through males); and failing that, to cognates (relatives traced through one or more females). Class I heirs include the son, daughter, widow, mother, and the children of a pre-deceased son or pre-deceased daughter, along with further descendants added by later amendments. This platform recommends confirming the exact current Schedule text with a lawyer before relying on it for a specific estate, since the Schedule has been amended more than once.

Vineeta Sharma v. Rakesh Sharma (2020) -- a daughter's coparcenary right accrues by birth

The Hindu Succession (Amendment) Act, 2005 made daughters coparceners by birth in the same manner as sons, with equal rights and liabilities, including the right to seek partition. This left open a question that produced conflicting Supreme Court rulings over the following years: did this benefit only apply where the father-coparcener was still alive on 9 September 2005, the amendment's commencement date? In Vineeta Sharma v. Rakesh Sharma, decided 11 August 2020 by a three-judge bench, the Supreme Court resolved the conflict by holding that a daughter's coparcenary right accrues by birth and does not depend on the father being alive on the commencement date -- the Court described Section 6 as operating on the birth event itself, even though the provision only takes legal effect from the amendment date. This is the single most important clarification of the 2005 amendment and should be treated as settled law.

Female Hindu intestate succession, and how Muslim, Christian, and Parsi succession differ

Sections 15 and 16 govern succession to a Hindu female's property, and the general order under Section 15(1) runs: her own children (including a pre-deceased child's children) and husband; then heirs of the husband; then her mother and father; then heirs of the father; then heirs of the mother. A frequently misunderstood point is the source-based exception in Section 15(2): property she inherited from her father or mother reverts, in the absence of her own children, to her father's heirs rather than her husband's side, and property she inherited from her husband or father-in-law reverts, in the same circumstance, to her husband's heirs -- this platform recommends confirming the precise current wording with a lawyer given how easily this source-based rule is misapplied. Muslim intestate succession is governed by uncodified personal law applied through the Muslim Personal Law (Shariat) Application Act, 1937, not the Hindu Succession Act. Christian and Parsi intestate succession are governed instead by the Indian Succession Act, 1925, covered in this platform's dedicated guide for those communities.

Common mistakes people make with intestate succession:

• Assuming a daughter's coparcenary right only applies if her father was alive after 9 September 2005 -- Vineeta Sharma settled that it accrues by birth regardless.
• Applying Hindu Succession Act rules to a Muslim, Christian, or Parsi estate -- these communities follow entirely separate succession frameworks.
• Overlooking the source-based exception in Section 15(2) when distributing a Hindu female's property, and assuming the general Section 15(1) order always applies without exception.