DEVOLUTION OF SELF-ACQUIRED PROPERTY OF A FEMALE UNDER HINDU

LAW: A GREY AREA
 THE HSA 1956

(Synopsis for a Project towards the partial fulfilment of the assessment in the subject of
Family Law)

Submitted by: Submitted to:

Akash Anurag (1266) Mr. Gowthaman Ranganathan
B.B.A. LL.B. (Hons.) Faculty of Law
Semester VII National Law University, Jodhpur.
Central Question That the Project Essay Seeks to Answer -
 Is Section 15 of the Hindu Succession Act,1956 against the Principle of Equality?
 What are the Possible Changes that Section 15 of the Hindu Succession Act, 1956 needs
to undergo ?
A Brief Structure of the Essay
The term ‘property' though not specified in Section 15 1means property of the deceased heritable
under the Act. It includes both movable and immovable property owned and acquired by her by
inheritance or by devise or at a partition or by gift or by her skill or exertion or by purchase or
prescription. This Section does not differentiate between the property inherited and self-acquired
property of a Hindu female; it only prescribes that if a property is inherited from husband or
father-in-law, it would go to her husband's heirs and if the property is inherited from her father or
mother, in that case, the property would not go to her husband's, but to the heirs of the father and
mother. In the case of the self-acquired property of a Hindu married female dying intestate, her
property devolves on her husband's heirs. Her paternal and material heirs do not inherit, but the
distant relations of her husband would inherit as per the husband's heirs.
Considers a Hindu woman capable of holding her separate property and owning it in her own
right. She has ownership rights in such property by way of inheritance or by acquisition.
Acquisition may be by gift, will, purchase, prescription, or her self-acquired property acquired
through her own skill. All self-acquired property is separate property but not vice versa. Separate
property, apart from including self-acquired property, also includes a share by way of
inheritance, gift, by will, or purchase. Yet the HSA 1956 does not differentiate between separate
property and self-acquired property. The Act lays down same general rules of succession for both
separate and self-acquired property of females dying intestate, wherein it first devolves on her
children or children of her predeceased child and husband then to the second class, i.e. to her
husband’s heirs. The relations of her husband are given preference over her own parents. The
legislators did not contemplate that Hindu women would later have self-acquired property. It is
generally the parents who provide facilities for a girl child to become capable of earning her own
income, but when it comes to devolution of such property, statutory preference is given to the
husband’s relatives rather than her own parents.

Giving preference to husband’s heirs may to an extent be justified in the case of separate
property on the ground that after marriage she becomes part of her husband’s family, but giving
them preferential rights over her parents regarding her self-acquired property is not justified,
particularly when she may not have acquired property with the support of her husband or his

1
Section 15, The Hindu Succession Act, 1956 (Republic of India).
family member. This injustice to women in the absence of any law with respect to the same can
very well be illustrated with the help of the decision of the Honorable Supreme Court in
2
Omprakash and Ors. v. Radhacharan and Ors. In its decision in the above case the Honorable
Supreme Court allowed the inheritance of self - acquired property of a women who had died
without any heir to the relatives of her deceased husband despite the fact that the property in
question was acquired after the death of her husband and that there was no contribution in the
property at all from her husband's family after her estranged relations with his family after his
death.

The Hindu Succession Act, 1956 was enacted when, in the structure of the Hindu society,
women hardly went out to work. There has been a vast change in the social scene in the past few
years and women have made progress in all spheres. The consequence is that women own
property earned by their own skill. The legislators did not foresee these situations. If that is so,
what is the impact of these socio-economic changes? Do they warrant any change in the law of
succession in relation to the property of a female Hindu dying intestate? What is the fallout of a
gradual disintegration of the joint Hindu family and the emergence of nuclear families as a unit
of society over the years in the context of law of succession governing the issue at hand?

The aim of this project essay is to analyze in depth Section 15 of the Hindu Succession Act and
bring out the faults in the same so as lay emphasis on the fact that the same is violative of the
Principle of equality when it comes to women and that there exists needs for reforms in the same
so as to keep pace with the societal changes that have taken place since the inception of the law
in question. The researcher along with chalking out the above mentioned facets also aims to
supply probable suggestions in order to redress the deficiencies if any in the provision of law
concerned.

2
Omprakash and Ors. v. Radhacharan and Ors., (2009) 15 S.C.C. (Supreme Court of India).
Tentative Bibliography

 Law Commission of India. (2000)174th Report on Property Rights of Women: Proposed

Reformsunder the Hindu Law(May 2000).
 Law Commission of India. (2008)207th Report on Proposal to amend Section 15 of the
HinduSuccession Act, 1956 in Case a Female Dies Intestate Leaving her Self-Acquired
Property with no Heirs(June 2008).
 Desai, S. A. (2013)Mulla Principles of Hindu Law New Delhi: Lexis Nexis Butterworths.
 Family Law Lectures (2011) - Dr. Poonam Pradhan Saxena : Lexis Nexis.