What is the of Hindu women rights on father's property?

n 1985 my father's property was distributed between my 3 brothers and they have not given any share to me. They have not taken my acceptance in the agreement they have made after my father's death. Now I am seeking the legal openion whether I can fight for my rights in the court of law. What is my rights and whether if I fight in the court shall I win the case. Please give me your answers with reference to the Indian Penel code and rights act.

Answers:
First the inaccuracies in the question:(grammar excepted)
(1) Question relates to share of a woman whereas the questioner's name denotes a male. Confusion arises by the use of "my" in the question. (2) Between is an inappropriate word while involving more than two persons ; it should be replaced by "among". (3) Reason for remaining silent for 22 years is not explained. There ia a law of limitation and this long delay has somehow to be explainable within the ambit of that law, to even gain an entry pass ("admission" of the case, in legal parlance).(4) Indian Penal Code is not applicable in civil matters. There is no Rights Act by that name but other relevant laws are there.
Presumption:(1) The questioner is a female and has asked the question through this questioner, who assists the former.
Thus the answer is given basing that it relates to the share of property in her father's estate (2) Her father died intestate that is leaving no will (3) She and her father are Hindus.(4) There are no other ClassI legal heirs
Answer:
(1)Since the property distribution, now sought to be assailed, took place in 1985, the Hindu Succession Act, as it stood then, did not provide any coparcenary rights to Class I female legal heirs.
(2)So, any property devolved from her grandfather to her father, being coparcenary property would not get subjected to any share for her.
(3) Any property self-acquired by her father, would be his separate property and she can claim equal share in that that is 1/4 share. If her mother and/or her grandmother was alive at the time of the death of her father, they too being class I heirs, would get equal share that is the ratio would get reduced as the denominator in the fraction increases to the actual number of Class I heirs at the time of death of her father.
(4) What was the profession of the deceased ? If he was an agriculturist only, then the real source of funds for acquiring the "separate property" described above, may be called in question by the brothers in their self-interest and ascribed to be the earnings from out of the coparcenary property. such claim may mire and elongate the legal proceedings.
(5) The "distribution" is not defined. If it was by a partition deed, registered, then the issue of explaining inaction all these years would be rendered very difficult to save limitation.
(6) If it was by "private partition" /Parikat/Palupatti/panchnama/ oral arbitration by community leaders leading to a memorandum of understanding signed by the persons partitioning, then entry of such partition, would not be there in Sub-Registrar's office and if an Encumbrance Certificate is applied for say 30 years, it will be "nil", if no other transaction has taken place with respect to the property in dispute. Then the claimant can plead that she never knew of this fact of partition excluding her and not bothering for her consent.
Steps:
(1) Approach a lawyer with full details of the property in dispute, with documentary evidence as to the property, like Certified Copes and ECs obtained from Sub0Registrar's office, latest copy of the record of rights/RTCpahani/khatihan/patt... etc and geneological tree and legal heir certificate from Tahsildar/Anchal Adhikari/Circle Officer, AND death certificate of the deceased person
(2) Get a notice issued by the lawyer, addressed to the brothers of the claimant, demanding partition of the property, and claiming her share. (go by the lawyer's advice as to the advisability or otherwise of the mention of knowledge of the partition that has already taken place, examining it under limitation angle)
(3) Depending upon the response, which would be mostly negative, prepare for filing a Partition suit. Adhere to lawyer's advice and get yourself ready on dates fixed for evidence.
Cost: Differs from State to State. Court fee will be assessed by the lawyer.
Fees: Negotiate and settle lump sum fee for the case and stagger the payment to the lawyer in stages as per progress of the case, in your interest.
Time: About 2 to 4 years. Appeal preferred by anyone may take another 2-3 years.
Advice: Have a cost benefit assessment and decide. If intervention of community elders is of any use, try that to save time,money and energy as well as maintaining filial relationship
A Hindu woman has right not only on the self acquired property of her father even on the ancestral property under the Hindu Succession Act, 1955. Section 6 of the said Act clearly provides: Devolution of interest of coparcenary property. - When a male Hindu dies after the commencement of this Act, having at the time of his death an interest in a Mitakshara coparcenary property, his interest in the property shall devolve by survivorship upon the surviving members of the coparcenary and not in accordance with this Act.

Provided that, if the deceased had left him surviving a female relative specified in class 1 of the Schedule or a male relative specified in that class who claims through such female relative, the interest of the deceased in the Mitakshara coparcenary property shall devolve by testamentary or intestate succession, as the case may be, under this Act and not by survivorship.

Explanation 1.- For the purposes of this section, the interest of a Hindu Mitakshara coparcener shall be deemed to be the share in the property that would have been allotted to him if a partition of the property had taken place immediately before his death, irrespective of whether he was entitled to claim partition or not.

Explanation 2. - Nothing contained in the proviso to this section shall be construed as enabling a person who has separated himself from the coparcenary before the death of the deceased or any of his heirs to claim on intestacy a share in the interest referred to therein.

In this case (Mitakshara)such a female is the legal heir specified in class 1 of the Schedule as a daughter & hence the provision of the Hindu Succession Act will apply in the distribution of such an ancestral property as given in the above mentioned proviso. Recent Supreme Court Judgment with regards to this, you can go through is Civil Appeal no 4171 of 2006 Anar Devi and Ors V/s Parmeshwari Devi and Ors dated 18/09/2006. With the amendment of section 6 of the above mentioned Act, in 2005 the daughter of a coparcener shall,-(a) by birth become a coparcener in her own right in the same manner as the son;(b) have the same rights in the coparcenary property as she would have had if she had been a son;(c) be subject to the same liabilities in respect of the said coparcenary property as that of a son, and any reference to a Hindu Mitakshara coparcener shall be deemed to include a reference to a daughter of a coparcener. The benefit of bringing this change is to ,-(a) the daughter is allotted the same share as is allotted to a son;(b) the share of the pre-deceased son or a pre-deceased daughter, as they would have got had they been alive at the time of partition, shall be allotted to the surviving child of such pre-deceased son or of such pre-deceased daughter; and(c) the share of the pre-deceased child of a pre-deceased son or of a pre-deceased daughter, as such child would have got had he or she been alive at the time of the partition, shall be allotted to the child of such pre-deceased child of the pre-deceased son or a pre-deceased daughter, as the case may be. Under section 8 , 9 & 10 of the Said Act the Hindu daughter is heir of class one category & she has equal right & share in the property of her father self acquired property as her brothers.

Source:http://www.freelawanswer.com/law/2258-law-4.html

0 comments:

Post a Comment