“Once a daughter, always a daughter”: Supreme Court gives equal inheritance right to daughters

Woman can claim equal share in family property as a daughter, the Supreme Court reiterated today because it stressed that the Hindu Succession Act – that was amended in 2005 to offer women equal inheritance can have a retrospective effect.

A three-judge bench, headed by Justice Arun Kumar Mishra, today said, “Once a daughter, always a daughter… a son may be a son till he’s married. The daughter shall remain a coparcener (one who shares equally with others in inheritance of an undivided joint family property) throughout life, regardless of whether her father is alive or not.”

The question that urged the highest court to form the remarks today was: “Does the Hindu Succession (Amendment) Act, 2005, which gave equal right to daughters in ancestral property, have a retrospective effect ?” the highest court was hearing a batch of appeals that raised the difficulty .

The question arose out of the highest court’s contradicting rulings in 2016 and 2018 with regards to interpretation of Section 6 of the Hindu Succession Act, 1956, which was later amended in 2005.